an unsatisfying tale of separation
by Tracer Fallon
Summary: U/M separated but in love, S4 onward, and the whole team's literal journey through Greece to heal Mamoru and the Senshi. Mythology/fantasy and friendship/romance.
1. Fragged

**an unsatisfying tale of separation.**

.

**1.** **Fragged**.

Usagi hadn't given up on their love until now. When they'd watched Esmeraude disappear with her high-pitched screeching, and Tuxedo Kamen had finally offered to bury the hatchet, and she'd chased after him, promising to take only what they could have at that time, she had more hope than ever before. She'd win him over yet! Nothing could be so bad, she'd thought, that she could ever wish to be separated from her prince. The price her mother had paid to give them this new chance, she'd known he was her soulmate.

And it had been hard before that point. He'd broken her heart constantly; given her several THOUSAND reasons they shouldn't be together ...most chiefly that he wasn't in love with her. She had ignored his cruelty, or tried to, always hopeful that some explanation would be made that would make him stop lying to himself. But there were times when she allowed herself to doubt his love. Even then, thought, she had blamed only her own shortcomings, which were many, and had hoped that one day she could improve herself enough to please him.

—That had been the hardest part for her back then, when she had realized that even _Chibiusa, _a child, had felt sorry for her.

And yet, Usagi had persevered, never giving up, even though it made her friends and Luna so uncomfortable.

She now winced in pain. Dimande held her hands high above her head and then forced his kisses on her. He invaded her mouth with his tongue, albeit gently, clearly trying to elicit some feeling from her besides absolute and total disgust. She hadn't come close to kissing Mamoru like this, much less a demon from the future who claimed to love her.

She had begged, _pleaded_, for him not to touch her… she didn't know him! She was **fourteen**!

He told her that Endymion had _given_ her to him, in exchange for the Rabbit — Chibiusa, who had been this Black Moon Family's ultimate goal. It made no sense, Usagi thought as she struggled with the demonic pervert; and no, she would never believe that!

Oh but yes, Dimande insisted. "You can't possibly know what a boon this way!" Dimande insisted with impassioned glee. "We wanted the Rabbit, but ultimatley, it was _only to get to you_." Dimande was positively gleaming with pride. "So when your so-called 'prince' offered a trade..." and he laughed as he climbed over her.

"He'd never do that!" Usagi struggled, knowing her powers were sapped in this strange palace. And she screamed her disbelief until Prince Dimande quieted her protests with his mouth.

She bit his tongue, one of the few powers she had left, and tasted blood. But she she opened her fearful eyes, he looked at her with even more excitement, then opened that strange black moon on his forehead, revealing an awful third eye, and suddenly her body felt like dead weight. He kissed her then, and this time, screaming inside that she didn't want to be doing this, she'd kissed him back, in ways she didn't even know a pair could kiss. She couldn't control her own body; it was reacting in ways she didn't even know were possible.

He picked her up and, _as if she were really responding to him_ instead of his sick mind control, he lathed her neck with soft kisses as he took her to the bed. Her mind screamed in horror anew as he lay on top of her, deepening their kisses; the humiliation was worse than anything she'd ever known, and she'd had a lot of humiliation before. This was different; soul-tearing, and when his kisses grew too forceful and he nipped her neck, to her own horror, she moaned in approval instead of screaming in horror.

Her seemingly positive approval was invitation for Dimande to start unzipping her dress… a dress he'd put on her when she was blacked out. Just the thought of what he'd _already seen_ and possibly _done_ made her scream inside with horror anew! He couldn't possibly be even human; she was crying inside, and begging him to stop, but …didn't he _HEAR_ her anguish, somewhere within his mind control of her body?

She finally had a moment, when thinking of what Mamoru would do if he could see her now, when her sheer will bent Dimande's control back on itself, and she'd fought him successfully, if only as a 14-yr old could do: she brought her knee up forcefully into his groin and scratched his face, then hoisted her body up, rolling him off her. At the same time, she rolled the other way and kept rolling until she dropped off the bed and slammed to the hard floor. Now she tasted blood in her own mouth...

.

That was a long time ago, Eternal Sailor Moon sighed as she stood in Elysion with the whole troupe, including Tuxedo Kamen. When it had come to light that Tuxedo Kamen held the power of the Golden Crystal in his soul, much as she held the Silver Crystal which Nehellenia was seeking, both her Silver Crystal and Kamen's Golden Crystal found each other, and bound together of their own accords, to powerfully and without doubt defeat the self-styled '_moon queen_'.

Chibiusa, at the moment of Nehellenia's defeat, bound towards Sailor Moon, happiness bubbling about her, and latched onto Moon's neck as she squealed in delight. The other Senshi were just as happy. Kamen had, smartly, stayed back, making it easier for them both to part civilly later, as they must always do.

"Yes, it's wonderful," Sailor Moon said with as much joy as she could muster to the ecstatic Sailor Mars. She added, "That woman won't terrorize our world anymore." She swallowed. Hard. How many more detrimental enemies would they have to fight like this? She tried to stay her tears and she followed Mars' animated joy:

"I mean did you SEE that new attack I had?" Mars shouted, spinning in place to mimic it again without actually catching Elysion on fire.

Sailor Venus was just as giddy, gleaming with pride that the love of Kamen and Moon had, again, and miraculously, save the planet _yet again_! Surely this would be a turning point for the Princess; she forgive now, seeing that Mamoru had the Golden Crystal! She gleamed at a stoic-looking Tuxedo Kamen.

But Jupiter had caught on quickly, watching Usagi — Eternal Sailor Moon — stand there with an expression that nothing could seem to break through, not even the destruction of this ancient Moon menace. 'Damn,' she thought to herself; nothing had changed. Again. Nothing ever really did.

.

Days later, Mamoru drove by the sixteen-year old future ruler of the planet's home and pulled over. He jumped out of the car and ran to catch up with her; she hadn't slowed, but she did turn around politely as he approached her. "Usagi!" he said, somewhat out-of-breath from the quick sprint.

She swallowed hard and bowed her head politely. "Mamoru."

His hands reached for her arms after she smiled, but he halted when she flinched away from his touch. Disappointed, he asked meekly, "Can we at least talk, Usagi? We've just defeated the worst enemy we've faced yet; and we did it together!" —And Chibiusa was so proud: their daughter felt that she was a living testament of the power which had manifested when her parents' crystals had combined to take down Nehellenia.

Unfortunately she had been just as crushed when Usagi had shown absolutely no elation in the same aftermath.

"Usa.. I've, um, considered this a lot; I hope you have too," Mamoru pleaded. "It's clear, more now than ever, that the universe has bound us together!"

"That was clear when you helped me get the new moon rod last year, Mamoru," Usagi said softly cautiously. "But again—"

"—And we'll _keep_ getting thrown together," he argued passionately. "Because we're **destined**; we love each other! You know it, I know it… our daughter attests to it all the time!"

Usagi bowed her head; at no time had she expected the little girl to continue popping up in the past after Usa had opted to try very hard to avoid that future. As of yet, none of her actions had been enough to have changed their future. The world would die one day, from what she'd seen of the darkened Crystal Tokyo, and it would be essentially by her hand, due to her former desire to stay in a toxic, hateful relationship. To her, Chibiusa was a living testament of that hurt and pain that was to come, and keep coming, for the next thousand years.

—And yet Usagi had no desire whatsoever to hurt the child. "I'm sorry about hurting Chibiusa, Mamoru; it was never my intention."

"I understand you're upset about what happened in Crystal Tokyo," Mamoru said softly, his voice dripping with adoration. "I know you can't stand to see me; I've accepted it all these years; I've given you your space."

"I don't hate you, Mamoru," Usagi interjected, her voice quivering. How many damned times had they been over this? She LOVED the man, and always would.

"But what we accomplished against Nehellenia, Usako…" his eyes had brightened momentarily as he readied his argument, but dimmed when he saw her flinch, yet again, at the term of endearment. He pushed forward: "That couldn't have happened if it weren't for our love! We all see it; Chibiusa sees it! …why can't _you _see it?"

Usagi steeled herself. "Mamoru, you promised we wouldn't have this conversation again—"

"That was before Nehellenia!" Mamoru argued, this time grabbing her face whether she liked it or not. He KNEW she loved him; he KNEW she wasn't interested in anyone else. He pulled her in suddenly for a kiss, peppering several small kisses on her lips before going for the gold. He was going to win her affections today, and put all this hurt behind them. Strike while the iron was hot—

Usagi fought a strong desire to give in, but when his hands grabbed her face and he started forcing his kisses on her, she was immediately drawn back two years into the past, in Crystal Tokyo, when Dimande had done similarly. Usagi screamed and let out a sob, like she had tried, and failed, to do in Crystal Tokyo. Offended, she pushed Mamoru away as much as she'd wanted to push Dimande away. Tears were streaming down her face as she turned to run from him.


	2. Spurned

**an unsatisfying tale of separation. **

.

chapter 2.

Makoto served her friend tea from Mama-Ikuko's kitchen.

Usagi said with no small amount of humor, "You didn't _have_ to come over, Makoto—"

"Nothing heals like some good, old-fashioned chocolate chip cookies, Usa-chan," Makoto smiled, setting out a plate of cookies to go with the tea. "Now let's chat!"

"I don't need 'healing', but it's nice to have your company," Usagi smiled. "So, which boy did you ditch to come save 'the Princess' this time?" Usagi asked, never losing her smile.

"_Kinto_," Makoto said, grimacing. "He's my tutor in culinary arts this year."

"You don't need a tutor for cooking!" Usagi laughed.

Makoto raised her eyebrows: "Sure I do! I completely forgot how to bake overnight." She blushed and added, "He wanted to see my ..um, baking techniques _outside_ of school."

The two girls giggled and chatted about lots of small things, before Makoto finally cut the crap. "Mamoru was supposed to leave for graduate school in a few days, Usagi; he's miserable about the way he approached you."

Usagi had been prepared for this: "He took me by surprise. But Makoto, I really believe Mamoru will meet someone new soon, and all this awkwardness will be over before you know it!"

"He's not going to America now," Makoto said glumly. She, along with the rest of them, knew how hard Mamoru had worked to get into Harvard; even as smart as he was, it wasn't a gimme these days. And to know that he'd done it all for Usagi, even though they hadn't formally 'dated' since he'd broken up with her two years ago… Makoto had never heard of anything so romantic!

Usagi dropped her cookie. "What? —_Why?_" she seethed.

Makoto ignored Usa's anger; she was used to it by now. "You _know_ why, Usagi. He tried to make things right with you, but it didn't work. He didn't feel he could commit to Harvard when the whole reason he was going was you, and you won't even talk to him!"

Usagi shook her head. "Is it too late, Mako? I mean, can he still go?"

Makoto shook her head: "Motoki asked him the same thing. But no, it's too late to change his mind. He sent word that he wasn't going last week, and he's been accepted for a residency at a local hospital instead." Beat. "He said it was okay; he'd learn just as much."

Usagi grew angry and stood up. "Will this never END, Makoto?" Tears threatened to well up in her eyes; and she'd long since stopped crying over every little thing. Usually it was only when a boy tried to kiss her that tears would well up in her eyes; and usually she could flee the situation before she had reason to cry.

But now she was just pissed. She'd never be rid of him, of that future. There would never be light at the end of her tunnel. It was positively oppressing.

"But Mamoru doesn't WANT it to end, Usagi! He's never wanted that!" Makoto said, pleading with her best friend to see some reason.

.

Mamoru sat at his desk, trying hard to focus on studying for his bio-chem final. Instead, he daydreamed of a future like Chibiusa had declared to him, where her parents were happy together, always holding hands, always getting caught kissing…

A future which now seemed impossible to Mamoru, no matter how many times Chibiusa told him otherwise. It had been nearly two full years since Prince Dimande's attempted rape; two years since Usagi had let anyone near her. Luna said her grades were still an epic fail, in part because she didn't care about the maths and sciences, but Mamoru knew she'd jumped into her homemaking courses with fervor anew, and was making dresses and hats in her spare time that were being shown in a few of the city's boutiques. He found that quite impressive, especially given that she was still just in tenth grade.

She'd really moved on from them, Senshi battles aside. She'd tried to push them away, although they couldn't allow such a thing since she was the reason they'd been re-awakened. And now of course, they had a brilliant future in Crystal Tokyo to look forward to, with her as their Queen! The very same future that Usagi didn't seem to care for any longer.

He'd banked on her friends helping to bring her around, but …_they were teens._ Minako especially had tried to push Usagi back to Mamoru far before she was ready; they all had, really. But Usagi had nonsensically refused to even speak to him, much less date him. Even after she had lost her Silver Crystal and couldn't transform, and he'd helped her to regain her powers through their love alone, Usagi had continued to avoid him in every way possible.

Maybe she would have grown out of it; Mamoru knew she wasn't one to hold grudges! But her friends just hadn't let it rest; they'd guilt-tripped her for hanging onto resentment of the breakup, or for being too sensitive…. Mamoru had warned them all that their approach was all kinds of fail. Usagi truly felt that she'd been 'thrown to the wolves' in Crystal Tokyo...

Of course in a sense, she _had_ been thrown to the wolves: dangled before the Black Moon Clan in Chibiusa's place to divert Wiseman's attention away from Chibiusa. —But Mamoru had tried to reach her in time.. He HAD reached her In time!

—But only barely in time. He frowned at the memory of seeing his maiden Princess nearly stripped of her dress while that vile prince humped her like a dog in heat. He'd known that surely she'd been brainwashed, and that this was an attempted rape. —But he couldn't un-see what he'd seen that day: when Dimande had looked up at him, Usagi had pulled that Black Moon devil back down to her, practically inhaling his mouth.

Still, he'd stopped it! —and had come close to killing Dimande on the spot.

Yes, Usagi had been brainwashed. She'd passed out the minute Dimande had been forced to release his hold on her mind. Mamoru had covered her delicately, and when she had come to, she hadn't remembered much, initially, besides waking up in a strange dress. But she'd pushed herself up and looked herself over, as if to detect evidence of a rape. There'd been no such evidence: she'd see markings on her delicate neck, and possibly feel things he couldn't imagine. That and her mussy hair were the only things to suggest that the evil Prince had attacked her.

But while Usagi remembered nothing specific, she'd still refused any kind of close contact from anyone, even including a hug from her closest friends. It was almost as if her subconscious had retained the horrific memories…

Which, at that time, after Wiseman's defeat, had been fine with Mamoru. The visuals _he'd_ been subjected to had been almost too much for him to bear, and while he'd proudly maintained that their prior breakup had been due to his nightmares, he couldn't quite forget her reaction to Prince Dimande, either. Brainwashed or not.

Of course, the fact that Usagi had later _defended_ the man when he'd conveniently overcome his brainwashing hadn't helped, either. Nor when she and the Senshi helped Dimande and his brother Saphir integrate into 20th Century society. The fact was, Usagi and Dimande had been more intimate in that one afternoon than Mamoru had even _imagined_ being with Usagi at the time.

…but two years had passed since then. It had taken months for Mamoru to realize that Usagi might have been seriously traumatized by the unfortunate timing of their breakup and Dimande's attempted-rape… and really, looking back, who _wouldn't_ have been traumatized by whatever Dimande had done to her? Mamoru had tried to talk to her more often, especially after their love had produced a working Silver Crystal and an even better transformation for her, but she'd merely thanked him for the assist, and then spurned him again.

And all there was for him to do was hope, and in the meantime dream of how things might have been, and yet might be one day—

.

There was banging on his door which jolted him out of his reverie; he rarely got visitors anymore, so it took him a moment to get presentable before answering the door:

Usagi! He was shocked to see her; she most certainly hadn't been to his apartment in _years_. Maybe something he'd said after they had defeated Nehellenia had finally sunk in, but before he could help himself, his hands were on hers and pulling her in: "Usako! Come in!"

Usa allowed the man to grab her hands and pull her in — she'd steeled herself for an even worse invasion of her space, though also to kindly rebuff any more kisses without seeming cold. She allowed him to escort her quickly to the sofa, and was still taken aback by his offer of tea before she'd had time to say hello. "No thanks…" she tried meekly, but he was in the kitchen preparing her a drink anyway.

"You haven't been to my place in …_a long time_, Usagi-chan," he said, smiling as he poured her a tall glass of chocolate milk, heavy on the chocolate, like she used to like. Makoto had told him she now preferred tea to chocoloate, but somehow he'd known that hadn't sounded right, so he'd remained prepared. "I'm so glad you came," he added, trying not to sound overly eager.

She merely sat primly on the sofa and noticed that he'd changed very little about the apartment. To her horror, which she hid, she noticed he'd even kept pictures of _her_ displayed. She winced and said, in as friendly a manner as possible, "I was really too young to be visiting a boy at his apartment back then."

"It was innocent, Usa-chan," Mamoru said as calmly as he could manage.

Usagi shrugged, remembering how she had enjoyed spending time with Mamoru here. However, she also remembered being crushed in this same apartment as well, when he'd broken up with her. She pushed those uncomfortable memories aside and, trying to think of something appropriate to say, she finally blurted out, "Are you dating anybody?"

Mamoru dropped the second glass he was preparing for himself. "No," he said, bending down to sweep up the shards of glass. "You're the last person I dated." He thought to himself that you couldn't much improve on perfection; he had no interest in dating anybody else.

Then it occurred to him that she might be here to announce different news; maybe that SHE was dating someone now. He cleared his throat and asked, "Are you? Because—"

"No," she said quickly. Although it seemed like she'd become quite the boy magnet — Makoto had dragged her to several clubs, supposedly to get her used to socializing again, though apparently having Usa or Minako with her helped Makochan get guys to swarm their table. But no, Usagi hadn't even entertained the idea of talking to, much less dancing with or dating, those boys. She delicately picked up a picture of herself and Chibiusa, then said, "I was just going to suggest you put these away if you were dating. A new girl might not understand—"

Mamoru finally brought her the drink and sat beside her: "I don't want to date anyone else, Usako."

Usa blushed and allowed a small smile. That was his choice to make, even though they really hadn't even been friends in years, much less _more_. She awkwardly looked at his desk, saw the books piled up there: "I imagine you stay pretty busy with all your studies."

Mamoru shrugged uneasily. "I guess." Then he asked hopefully, "Hey, would you like to go grab a bite to eat? I'd love to take—"

"No," she said simply. She turned to him with her brows knitted and finally said, "Makoto told me that you weren't going to Harvard, Mamoru. That you're opting for a local university hospital here in Tokyo."

"Yes," he colored slightly. He'd thought the decision would be obvious enough to not warrant discussion. "I've already been accepted into the program. I'm not going anywhere, Usa," he said.

Usagi ran a hand through her streamer and thoughtfully said, "I don't want you to sacrifice a promising future for me."

Mamoru bristled and sat near her: "Usako, you _are_ my promising future! Why don't you see that, even now?"

She collapsed dramatically against the soft sofa cushions behind her: "Oh… _Mamoru_!" She smiled and glanced at him: "I'm not _going_ anywhere, if I'm really your future. —I think you should go. Do what's best for you!"

"I am doing what's best for me, Usako," he said. "One day it's going to hit you that still love me—"

"It's hit me!" Usa sighed and rolled her eyes. "I do still love you, Mamoru," Usagi said, then pressed her lips together in frustration.

Mamoru continued, "And you'll get over what happened in Crystal Tokyo, and realize what a beautiful future we have together. And I'm going to be here when that day happens."

"Mamoru, look at me," she said, sitting up and setting her glass down firmly. "I want what's best for you—"

"_You're_ what's best for me!" the man argued, feeling a little testy..

Usagi shook her head: "You're a great guy, Mamoru, but you're not what's best _for me_."

Mamoru said sadly, "But… how could you say that, Usako? Together we've beat impossible odds! Saved the planet several times over; defeated the worst monsters imaginable! If any two people in the world were meant to be together, it's us!"

"No," Usagi said more firmly. "Mamoru, I promised myself I wouldn't get back into a relationship like that again. I think you were right all along: that what happened in the Silver Millennium is history. We have a whole new life to lead as we please!"

"I told you," Mamoru said gruffly, "I just said all that stuff to push you away, Usako! I had those nightmares warning me to stay away from you; I had to convince you we were over—"

"Your future self explained that perfectly well," Usagi said, waving a hand to stop him from going over it all again. "All of it. How he sent you the dreams to break up with me." She smiled uneasily, still angry despite her best efforts, though more at their future counterparts than the Mamomu before her: "How he set me up to be captured by the Black Moon Clan, so I could be nearly raped—"

"He _hadn't_ known that would happen!" Mamoru said, far too angrily for such a delicate situation. Usa literally jumped liked a skittish cat at his tone. "I mean, the way you phrase that makes it seem like we intended for you to get hurt! You continually refuse to take into account that I WAS there for you—"

She shook her head adamantly: "It's not the _phrasing_ that's wrong. King Endymion _told_ me that he'd planned for me to be captured, to protect Chibiusa."

Mamoru said, "Usako, he said that _only_ you were powerful enough to withstand the Dark Crystal. The other possibility was one he just couldn't live with!"

"Yeah," Usagi said. "Chibiusa getting captured would be so much worse than me being raped."

"You _weren't_ raped!" Mamoru insisted. "Endymion told us that we couldn't _imagine_ the horrors unleashed upon the world by Chibiusa's brainwashing! He wanted to spare her that—"

"At my expense," Usagi said haltingly, looking away. "I've thought about it a lot, just like you told me to, Mamoru." She stared right at him and said, "And I know I wouldn't have set up even my worst enemy for that kind of treatment, much less… oh _nevermind_," she rolled her eyes, stiffening with the knowledge that he'd absolutely never get it.

Mamoru wanted to comfort her so bad, but didn't want her to scare her away again, either. "Usako, I _came_ for you. Endymion had planned for that too, that I would come for you."

"You came late," she said, trying hard not to cry. "And he'd been wrong; I _wasn't_ immune to the brainwashing!" She couldn't believe she was having this same argument again! If not with Mamoru, then with Rei, or Minako. Even Luna, her so-called advisor.

Mamoru, as gently as he could manage, explained: "The King had told us you needed to be held _long enough_ to ensure Wiseman had hope to turn you! —But we _knew_ you wouldn't be turned! Usako, anyone else would have been brainwashed! Easily! Chibiusa would have been emblazoned with that evil black moon insignia… You were our only hope!"

"Mamoru, you let me get _mauled_ and _molested_ by a _stranger_!" Usagi said, disgusted. "And without warning!" She'd found out the truth from Dimande himself; a truth so horrible that she couldn't let herself believe him back then!

Mamoru stood up and paced the floor: "Absolutely not! I had no idea—" He blanched and dropped his head. "I mean, I knew about Prince Dimande's sick _lust_ for you, although Endymion played down that part. But we had all imagined Wiseman would try to brainwash you some other way. To hurt others or something..." He added softly, "And that the Silver Crystal would protect you. Usako, I know you felt all alone. —And I'd never been so scared in my life!"

"Yes, I'm sure it was devastating for you," Usagi said. She glanced up again and asked, "But can't you understand why I don't want that future, Mamoru? Your future self threw me under the bus to save _Chibiusa_!" She stood up and said, "If I commit to a man one day, It would have to be someone who would throw _himself_ in front of the bus for me."

She gathered her things as Mamoru squeezed his temples: "It wasn't LIKE that, Usako! I just wish you'd listen! I got to you in time—!"

"Not only was it _exactly_ like that, Mamoru, but you went along with it! When he told me to get out of the palace, you didn't come running after me!"

"He said you needed time!" Mamoru reiterated loudly.

"No!" Usagi charged. "At some point you KNEW he had set me up, if you hadn't known all along. And you _went along with it_. —You **all** did! And the worst thing?" She shut her eyes and shook her head: "You'd do it again! If given the chance, you WILL do it again, to a future incarnation of me. —And believe me, I won't be responsible for ANY girl going through that." She got to the door and said, "That's not love, Mamoru; and I'm NOT a reasonable sacrifice."

"But Chibiusa, Usagi! What about our daughter?" Mamoru asked, trying to find some rhyme to her reason.

"Exactly; this all boils down to Chibiusa. AGAIN. And you're perfectly willing to sacrifice your future AND mine to make sure she gets born," Usagi said.

"_Sacrifice?_ Usa, that's not what it would be at all!" Mamoru said. "We're to become the world's regents! And why? Because you and I have a connection!"

"Yes," she agreed, far more angrily than she'd intended for this visit. "A _toxic_ one; one that says you get to throw me to the dogs to spare Chibiusa the least inconvenience." She shook her head: "Go, Mamoru. Seriously, _go to America_. You've fought the brave fight staying here all this time without a single glimmer of hope from me. I commend you for that. But seeing Chibiusa back here all the time does nothing but remind me that the man you will turn into would _offer me up_ to be tortured if it would spare that girl. And that's NOT the future I choose for myself."

"When are you going to listen to REASON?" Mamoru asked, holding the door closed. "Usako, I _never_ really broke up with you; I always had your back! —I almost killed my future self to ascertain your whereabouts from him!" He wiped his face down and said, "And if I thought going away would help, dammit I would! But I think a better idea would be us going back to the future, so you can SEE how happy we're supposed to be! How happy we WILL be!"

"Ah yes, the future with NO PEOPLE, Mamoru," Usagi said angrily. "So few people that Chibiusa's forced to come back here to get a friend, to learn some basic people skills. Sorry, but that's not my idea of a utopia."

"You sound like Dimande now, Usagi."

Usagi glared at him and grabbed the doorknob firmly: "Fine, Mamoru. Whatever. Go, don't go — I was just trying to encourage you to live your life; but do as you please."

And with that, she left.

Mamoru turned to his ceiling and considered yelling at the future royals with sheer willpower alone. He cursed, then nearly punched a fist through his wall. He'd known all along that he'd hurt her; he'd even known that she wasn't overly impressed with Crystal Tokyo. But he'd never imagined that she was still that bitter about Endymion allowing her to be captured so Wiseman couldn't capture Chibiusa! He'd thought it was clear that King Endymion _adored_ Usagi, _and_ the Neo-Queen; he wouldn't have put her through more than she could handle! He'd said she was more powerful than any of them could even imagine…

"Usa just can't imagine the hell that a brainwashed Chibiusa would have wreaked on the world," Mamoru said to himself, trying to calm down. "One day, she'll come around." —although this had been their absolute worst throw-down yet, and if two years hadn't healed her wounds, he couldn't fathom what might.

He sat at his balcony for hours, imagining Usagi walking through the streets alone. Trying to imagine her in five years; twenty years… He considered her words, over and over. And finally, he considered that maybe Endymion had been wrong to use Usagi as a decoy to spare Chibiusa.


	3. Death

**an unsatisfying tale of separation. **

.

chapter 3.

A month later, Chiba Mamoru was gone. Truly gone. Even Usagi helped the others search for him, only to find a quickly scribbled note that Motoki had produced, and even that wasn't just for Usagi:

"Friends,

After talking with Usagi, I've decided that maybe some time and space might help us all put things in perspective. I was able to obtain a late-entrance to another school in the U.S., Princeton, so I'm going to be there for the year.

Usako, I'm sorry we didn't part on better terms. Not a moment goes by that I don't regret the hurt I've caused you, and while you've made it clear you don't want me in your life, it would mean a great deal if you would occasionally correspond with me during my stay in America. I hope you'll one day find it in your heart to forgive my egregious and unforgivable treatment of you. But you were wrong in one thing: if I ever put Chibiusa above you, which I can't imagine I did, it would only be because she is our daughter. I have every faith that you'll understand that one day, and I remain forever yours,

Chiba Mamoru"

.

"Some forever," Usagi frowned the next month, emptying her mailbox and looking for a letter from Mamoru. She checked her phone, which had messages from just about everybody but Mamoru… And finally went into the house to ask if there had been any calls for her.

But she knew the drill well, by now; there had been no messages yet, and probably wouldn't be in the future. She squeezed her eyes shut at a love lost; he'd truly forgotten her. She blinked away tears and breathed.

.

**IN THE CAULDRON**

Mamoru floated over to the latest arrivals, and positively winced to see the remaining Senshi here. If one could cry in this hellish place, he'd be sobbing.

"Mars," he asked, "How ..was she?"

Mars let the darkness envelope her; everything was hopeless, especially to find Mamoru here. "—She thinks you're alive," Mars finally said.

"I know," Mamoru croaked with a dry throat.

"When did you …_get_ here?" Jupiter asked nervously.

"The very day after she visited my apartment," Mamoru said. "Months ago now, I suppose, though time is rather meaningless here."

Mercury bent her head and tried crying; shook her head when that proved useless. "—It's so unfair; she's had all the worst things happen to her, and now she's alone."

"That was your nightmare all those years ago, Mamoru. When you broke up with her," Luna said.

"Those nightmares were a plant," Mamoru frowned. "_Fake_."

"She still believes in your love, Mamoru," Venus smiled.

Mamoru looked up, confused: "Really? …She wasn't sure, the last time I saw her!"

"She's never been more sure now, Chiba," Luna said, floating through the Cauldron.

Mamoru turned away, moved by so many emotions… he'd soon see her here, in the afterlife, after Galaxia defeated her as soundly as she'd defeated the rest of them.

"Excuse me," Pluto said, floating to the group with Saturn. "I believe I know where we can observe the final battle for our galaxy. Please follow me."

And that's when Chibiusa came floating down, as well. Mamoru indicated that Mars should take her, and he continued to follow Pluto to the viewing area.

Mamoru felt ire when he saw that Dimande was already at the observation deck …front-row seats!

"My love," Dimande sighed, following her beautiful body with his finger against the viewport, "Use the sword! Pick it up, and slash her with it!"

"She not _your love_, Dimande," Mamoru growled quietly, but then watched the same sights as Dimande.

"Just one good hit!" Dimande cheered.

"She's getting hit, plenty," Chibiusa said, frowning in disgust. "Geez, Luna could do better than that! Mama won't live through this, will she?"

It struck Mamoru that he should be hyper-aware of any occasion where he could help Usagi, even here, beyond the grave. It was unlikely, he knew, but he wouldn't relax on this question again.

"Chibiusa's gone!" Mars said suddenly.

And yet, as the girls talked about the Sailor Transport that had apparently taken Chibiusa out of the Cauldron, Mamoru determined to focus ONLY on his Usako. Really, nothing else mattered now; she had to be victorious. There was no other option. "I believe in you, Usako," he said. "You can overcome this."

"I do, too, Usako," Dimande said to the glass. He frowned as the Princess lost her sword. "Crap. And that thing was one of a kind!" He looked at Mercury and asked, "Did she get even one hit in with it? One?"

Mercury ignored him and continued to focus on Usagi.

Chibi Chibi appeared beside Mamoru and tugged on his jacket.

.

.

She was alone now; Galaxia had determined to leave, and everybody else was long gone. She supposed she'd _won_, and that there were no more threats… but what did it matter? They were all gone. There was nobody left but her. She wept.

Sailor Mars made it out first: "Usagi?"

Usagi almost fell out of the sky; teary-eyed, she screamed 'Rei' just as her best friend bolted into her arms; the girls hugged tightly, both of them crying.

"You did so well, Usa-chan," Mars smiled.

And then Mercury was there: "AMI!" Usagi squealed, launching herself onto the tiny, blue-haired Senshi and crying as well. "Ami, you made it! HOW? I'd thought everyone…?"

Jupiter smiled as she approached the Princess: "You did great, Usa; I always knew you would."

Usagi was overcome; Mina and Makoto both were there, and they both grabbed her and hugged her, too.

"Hey Kitten."

"Haruka?" Usagi screamed with joy, before turning around and seeing all four Outers standing there. "You all, …you _made_ it!"

"Thanks to you, Sailor Moon," Saturn said, smiling.

"I thought I was all alone! But I have you! I'm not alone—!"

"Never," Mars smiled. "We told you, you'll always have us!"

Usagi smiled.

"Usako."

Usagi turned, completely disbelieving. She stared for moments at the beautiful sight of both Mamo-chan and Chibi Chibi, then turned so quickly to them that her legs tangled together. She flew into his arms, eyes closed tight: "Mamo-chan." She held on for dear life. Inhaling the scent of his tuxedo and its shirt, and the ever-powerful scent of roses from his jacket. "Mamo-chan," she cried miserably.

Mamoru held her up and pulled her tight; he was beyond words. He simply tucked his beloved under his chin and kissed her head again. "Chibi Chibi led me to you," he said emotionally. "And Usako, you were magnificent."

.

Days later, after Seiya and the other Starlights left and took their Princess with them, Usagi stayed clinging to Mamo-chan, nearly scared to let him go anymore.

"I'd thought…" Usagi tried.

"I know," Mamoru said, still holding her much as he did after the apocalypse. "I'm sorry."

"I'd thought you were ignoring me all these months," she cried, holding onto him such that she could feel his bones and know he was alive. And here. With her.

"I'm sorry," Mamoru said.

"I didn't know," Usagi cried again.

They stayed together long that night, well into the early hours of the morning.

"Want to find a place to get some breakfast?" Mamoru asked, chuckling lightly after he looked at his watch.

Usagi whimpered as she nodded her approval. "Yeah."

He bent down and gently kissed her. All those thoughts of Crystal Tokyo long gone, apparently for both of them, he enjoyed the closeness she allowed, and seemingly without an ounce of nervousness anymore. He was glad; he'd hated how tormented she'd been all these years, over both Prince Dimande's vile action, and his own vile _inaction_.

"You haven't let me kiss you since—"

"I was fourteen," she said sorrowfully, then buried her head in his chest again. Although back then, he hadn't seemed to want to kiss her; he'd broken up with her. Funny how that still hurt. Also funny how she'd gotten past it, though. Something about being the last one standing made things look a whole lot different.

.

.

Mamoru had remained in Tokyo after his return from the dead, and took Usagi on many dates. She was still, unfortunately, uncomfortable with close contact outside of their very intimate hugs. And, as time passed, and she got used to Mamoru's presence in her life again, she seemed to lose the need for even that much contact. And he missed it.

He missed it a lot. They'd shared that first kiss, and a few since, but those kisses hadn't been quite what he was hoping for, especially after years of waiting. While he didn't want to push, he didn't want to continue on as they were for several _more_ years. So he finally made his intentions known, both to her and her family, on her 17th birthday:

"Usako, my love," he said at the birthday party in her back yard. He had everyone's attention, maybe especially Tsukino Kenji's. "I have loved you since you were fourteen, though we haven't been as close as I would have hoped."

Kenji grumbled; Usagi paled and looked at Rei.

"I'll be starting my residency in the Fall, and …I don't want us to spend another day apart ever again."

This was it; he nervously kneeled down on one knee and opened the very expensive little present he'd picked up back when Usagi was 15, even though she hadn't been speaking to him then. "You would make me the happiest man on the planet if you would do me the honor of becoming my wife."

Ikuko-Mama screamed with joy, then jumped up and hugged her friends. Kenji remained seated, and the Senshi watched their Princess with trepidation.

Usagi kept her eyes on Mamoru, who, smartly, had kept his eyes on her. She smiled at his embarrassment, then nodded an affirmative: "Yes, Mamoru." She swallowed as she got up to meet him, pushing thoughts of the missing-since-Galaxia Chibiusa out of her mind. Mamoru had been so public with this impromptu proposal that she hadn't wanted to embarrass him. But they would need to talk later.

.

She slowly got out of his car and looked at the home he'd found for them. Apparently he'd been looking for quite some time, since this was one of five properties he wanted her to check out.

Mamoru gleamed: "See, it's still in Juuban, but we have a large expanse for privacy—"

"It's the largest mansion in the neighborhood, Mamoru," Usagi said softly, embarrassed.

"We have to think of the future, Usako! _You and I_ know that most of this neighborhood will be our Crystal Palace one day," Mamoru smiled.

Usagi bit her lip and said, "Mamoru, did you propose on my birthday because we haven't seen Chibiusa lately?"

Without looking at her, Mamoru said, "No, I proposed because I want sex."

Usagi laughed, trying to hide her nervousness on that subject; leave it to Mamoru to smash the elephant in the room.

When she came to herself, Mamoru was staring at her. "Usako, I meant what I said; I want you. With me. Always."

"You really bought this ring when I was fifteen?" Usagi asked, playing with the charming stone.

"I've wanted to marry you as long as I can remember; even when I first met you," Mamoru said.

"Liar," Usagi smirked. "Mamoru, this is a great place," she said, indicating the property. "But …it's not for me."

He grabbed her hands and kissed her nose: "This will ALL be yours, my love."

"Maybe the future's different, Mamo-chan," Usagi smiled. —And if it weren't, she'd make it different, by never imprisoning the Black Moon Clan to begin with. In fact, she didn't intend to ever exile ANYONE. Even out of the room for a time out!

Mamoru hid his scowl, not wanting to accuse her of trying to get rid of their daughter, but secretly wondering if that were the case. He didn't imagine it so.

"Not Chibiusa," Usagi said frankly, knowing Mamoru's thoughts. "I mean the way things are run in the future. If they hadn't exiled people to Nemesis, then there would have been no need to …_sacrifice,_ either me or Chibiusa, to those clowns."

"I'd thought of that," Mamoru admitted. "But then I thought that they must have had a good reason to exile those people." He shrugged: "Maybe we should execute them instead."

"MAMORU!" Usagi said, horrified. "No!"

A wry smile let her know he was kidding. He pulled her close again, then said, "We'll work it out; we won't forget about Nemesis, Usako. And you'll do as well with Crystal Tokyo as you did with Galaxia."

"It all seems so far away," Usagi gushed, walking back to the car. She secretly laughed at them buying this monstrous house to prepare for Crystal Tokyo, when the city might not become a reality for eons.

Mamoru grabbed her hips from behind and pulled her close against him. He breathed on her neck, wondering if even this much was pushing it. But she leaned back into his arms and said, "I can't believe we're getting married." They'd barely spoken since they'd broken up, and she'd insisted that she would never be with him —and then Galaxia killed him. She inhaled sharply, considering carefully how quickly death could take you. "But we don't die," she murmured.

"What?" Mamoru asked.

Usagi turned around in his arms and decided she was ready, well beyond ready in fact, for a real kiss. Unfortunately the only experience she'd had with such things was while being brainwashed by Dimande, but it was finally time. She ran her fingers through the back of Mamoru's hair and pulled his mouth to her open mouth. She felt his reaction immediately and almost laughed, but focused instead on the mechanics of kissing… until Mamoru pulled away to look at her, then re-initiated the kiss as if it was the one thing he been waiting centuries for. He breathed hard, then pulled away and attacked her mouth from a different angle, his hands tangling her hair hopelessly. She swooned into his arms, and he suddenly hoisted her up on the car and stared into her eyes.

She almost spoke, but he was kissing her again, this time inhaling from her lungs deeply as he pulled her legs around his waist. He held her head against his so hard that it almost scared her — except oh NO this wasn't like Dimande's forced kiss AT ALL! This was raw need, sucking at her mouth until her lips were swollen and numb, and her heart was racing all too fast…

"Damn," Mamoru muttered as he broke away and gently let her down to her feet. His hand was squeezing hers almost unbearably; she winced in pain. But then he opened the door and very, very gently set her inside and pulled the seatbelt around her waist. His face remained lingering over her body though, and he started kissing the material between her breasts. Usagi's head fell backwards against the car seat as he drenched her shirt with his saliva and then kissed up her neck; his head was moving so fast that she could barely follow. She planted her feet on the floorboard to lean up and kiss him back; he wasted no time moving his hand down to the seat and possessively grabbing her.

And suddenly he was gone; Usagi jumped up, looking around, sure he'd been stolen suddenly by Galaxia yet again! —but he'd merely walked around the car to get in and drive.

"Dammit, Usako, I didn't want to molest you in public," he growled. …it had just been, quite literally, a millennium since she'd let him touch her like that, and his emotions were overpowering him.

She smiled and relaxed languidly in the passenger seat, biting her lip as she remembered how he'd kissed her.

And then her communicator went off.

"Toss it," Mamoru demanded, rolling her window down from his side of the car.

She laughed, truly feeling like a queen just then, but she pulled the communicator out and answered.

"Stop what you're doing and get down here now!" Rei's voice demanded through the device.

"Where?" Usagi asked nervously; she knew Rei rarely got upset over the communicator anymore.

"Elysion, and make sure Mamoru's with you."


	4. The First Circle: Limbo

**an unsatisfying tale of separation. **

.

chapter 4.

"But Helios says you're sick," Usagi said with worry. She rubbed the soft fabric of his jacket, then smiled wanly. "Please, Mamo-chan, let's just do this."

"But I feel fine!" Mamoru complained. "And a _healing journey_ for me that requires us all to go?" He didn't want to complain that he was JUST about to finally bury the hatchet, among other things, with the love of his life, and didn't want a crowd!

"I could always consult the fires; try to see what's going on," Rei offered uneasily. Mamoru didn't look happy about this news; maybe a journey was overkill.

Ami dissented: "I _could_ use some of my Mom's equipment to run some tests on you, Mamoru, but nothing scientific is going to explain what Helios says he _knows_."

"We can't risk _not_ going," Mina said softly, pleading with Mamoru. "You're too close to our Princess now, Mamoru."

"Indeed," Helios said. "You remember what happened when Nehellenia started making the earth sick; you lashed out at Serenity when she came to help you."

"But back then I KNEW something was wrong with me." He turned to Usagi and said apologetically, "I hadn't wanted to hurt you; that's why I sent you away."

Usagi shrugged at him. She hadn't been with Mamoru back then anyway, just generally concerned for his well-being. His sending her away, even violently, hadn't been too shocking to anyone.

"—And wouldn't I KNOW if I were sick now?" Mamoru argued, standing and pacing away from the group.

"It's merely a precaution," Helios said uneasily, "but I'm afraid it is a precaution that we would be remiss not to take."

"Right, Mamoru," Makoto said. "It's not like some regular guy getting sick; with you, the whole world could be at stake!"

"And the girls would have to go, as well," Mamoru stated, sighing, and thinking how he wouldn't get a moment alone with his Usako on any kind of boat with the girls around. And he'd been so close tonight, so close he was sure it was going to happen! "—Are you sure ALL the girls have to come?" Mamoru asked again. "I wouldn't want to put them out or anything."

"Just the ladies present," Helios said softly. "For Serenity's safety."

"But I could protect her just fine," Mamoru argued—

"No you couldn't," Makoto said proudly. "And Usagi _has_ to go, right, Helios? Meaning _we all_ have to go!" Makoto asked with a bit too much excitement in her voice. When Rei elbowed her, Makoto grinned, "WELL? It's GREECE, Rei! The city of love!"

"Greece is a country," Rei snapped.

"And it's not Paris," Ami added.

Usagi glided up to her fiancée and said, "We could think of it as a pre-honeymoon trip."

Mamoru, smiling wryly, grabbed her and said, "Make it a 'honeymoon' and you've got a deal."

Usagi's eyes flew open wide and she angrily said, "Helios said we have to take this trip NOW, Mamoru! And we can't rush the wedding! Mama is so excited about it and she's just STARTING the plans for next year!"

"Next _year_?" Mamoru asked. "Didn't anyone hear me say that I didn't want to spend _even another day_ apart from you! —Didn't I say that? Wasn't that clear?"

Rei looked at Mina and whispered, "A year out, but I've already gotten a summons from Mrs. Tsukino to appear for a fitting!"

Makoto smiled and said softly, "I've already had my fitting!"

Ami blushed and said, "Me, too."

Rei's temper got the best of her, and she couldn't keep her voice down: "They've only been engaged two days!"

Mamoru and Usagi turned to hear the girls better; Makoto saw them and smiled widely: "Rei doesn't want to do her fitting because she's scared she'll get fat before next year."

"AM NOT!" Rei yelled, punching Makoto on the arm.

Helios interrupted the camaraderie and bowed slightly before the Prince of Earth and the Moon Princess: "Endymion, I hate to rush this, but the sooner we embark upon the journey, the more successful it may prove to be."

Usagi smiled and said, "It'll be fine, Mamoru! WE'LL be with you!" She half-wondered if he were scared of boats, but then turned to the girls and squealed, "We've gotta PACK!"

"You do," Helios agreed, then pulled out the itinerary. "There's a red-eye to Greece tonight; I took the liberty to secure these tickets for us."

Usagi picked a ticket out of the priest's hands and said, "Ooh, and a cargo spot for a cat cage!"

"You've got to be kidding me" Mamoru said. "Luna and Artemis have to come?"

"They don't like water much," Usagi winced.

"Yes, the Senshis' advisors should be with us, as well," Helios said, trying to avoid the Prince's death glare.

As the girls chatted about what all they should bring on such an excursion, Helios slinked over to Mamoru and said, "Believe me, Endymion, I wouldn't request such a thing if I didn't know it to be of the direst importance."

Mamoru nodded. "I understand. But it's just that Usako and I are only now getting back on track, and—"

"Yes, I hear congratulations are in order," Helios said genteelly.

"I haven't even… I mean, she and I have just barely started repairing our relationship, Helios," Mamoru sighed. "I think it would be very good for the planet's health if she and I had an evening alone together before we embark upon this journey."

Helios responded, "You must note, Mamoru, that you and Usagi are already quite close, as evidenced by the destruction of Nehellenia. You're already bonded with her in the most important ways."

"Not in the way I'd most like to be bonded with her," Mamoru retorted.

Helios scowled at Endymion and said, "I'm trying to tell you that I believe this will prove to be a necessary journey for _the Princess_ as much as it will be for you. And we simply must leave today."

"Wait," Mamoru said, taken aback. "Usagi _needs_ this journey?"

Helios said carefully, "Endymion, I believe that any journey _you_ must undertake, must be required for the Princess as well."

Mamoru watched his 17-year-old Usako dancing around with the girls, preening with thoughts of lovely wardrobes they'd bring along, and occasionally Usagi spared a smile for him. She'd been so much more like the Usagi they'd all known prior to that incident, though it had taken the near-collapse of the galaxy and the deaths of everyone she knew to get her there, ...it didn't seem right that she'd have yet another hurdle to overcome. Mamoru asked again, "She's _not_ sick, right? You **have** to tell me..."

Helios tensed, but said with feigned exasperation, "I _am not_ of the Moon Kingdom, Endymion, so the exact nature of the reason for _her_ journey is surely a mystery." He brushed invisible lint off his jacket and added, "She probably needs to go merely because of you." The priest smiled: "But if I were you, I wouldn't worry her with such things. We wouldn't want her to overthink anything."

Mamoru ran a hand through his hair, now thinking about bigger things than one night with Usagi. His mind went back to the last man who claimed to know what '_must_' happen for the good of the world — the future King Endymion, when Crystal Tokyo had been under attack. The king had insisted that only Usagi could battle Wiseman, but also insisted that she couldn't know what she was about to face or she could fail. Something about her innate abilities being far stronger than anything they could imagine, and that if they didn't make her face Wiseman, then Chibiusa would be turned and would nearly destroy the world…

Usagi had hated the deception, claiming to the king himself that she would have gladly done as Endymion wished had he simply been upfront about it.

Mamoru said sternly, "I'm not keeping anything from her, Helios. We tell her the whole truth, that she needs to take this journey as much as I do." When Helios looked at him with shock, Mamoru said, "Or we don't go."

.

_**The Start of the Journey**_

"Eww, Mamoru!" Usagi sneered, looking at the countryside about her. "I thought we were going to Athens!" —Their flight had landed not too long ago, and they'd been bused and dropped off in a small village near a creepy area without malls. And Usagi was not happy. She couldn't imagine how someone could get healed in a backwater place like this!

"Oh!" Ami said, looking at her laptop: "I know this place! —oh, Mamoru_, this is great!_" She anxiously wondered if she might get extra credit in her Foreign Relations class if she kept a journal of this trip.

Helios nodded at Mamoru, who grunted from lack of sleep. Helios pointed towards the docks nearby and said, "Get your baggage and we'll start our journey."

Usagi and Minako stayed behind as the others started picking up their luggage. Everyone else had brought only one bag, but both Usagi and Minako felt it important to bring clothes for every possible occasion on this luxury trip, so they each had five bags. And a purse, a carry-on, and [for Minako] a makeup case. Makoto and Mamoru handled most of the luggage, and the two blondes dawdled behind the group thinking of how disappointing this week was going to be.

When they finally caught up to the suddenly-stricken group, Usagi looked up, and her eyes bulged! She quickly looked at her stilled group. Flabbergasted with fear, she launched herself at Mamoru, but whispered to Makoto: "Isn't that …?"

Rei quietly said, "Usa-chan, I'm …_sure_ this is just a, _um_, weird coincidence." —Although Rei's spidey senses were screaming, as well. She was an older miko now; one who could maintain a sense of calm in the strangest of circumstances. But now she nearly had to gnaw her tongue in half to keep her wits about her. She meditated to herself that she surely wasn't going to act like a child just because of _an uncanny resemblance_!

Plus, Usagi had done away with their enemies; all that was over now! …she _thought_.

"He bears a striking similarity to that old green lady's droid from the future," Makoto said blatantly, agreeing with Usagi.

"Everybody had to start somewhere," Helios said patiently but firmly, then picked up a few extra of Usagi's bags with a definite sneer on his face. '_Princesses_.'

Ami was on her computer, entering the face she'd already scanned directly into her facial recognition program. Now she whispered, "So far, I've got nothing from the Interpol databanks. He's not a criminal."

But Minako, like Usagi, was shrinking away from the giant who was going to be their tour guide on this strange river trip through Greece. "Oh come **ON**, Ami! Nobody's THAT freaking tall! He's got to be in there! Let me look—"

Oops! The large man that all of them believed bore a striking resemblance to one of Esmeraude's droids was upon them. He bent over to the group and asked, "Are you the party I'm to escort on a lovely Grecian tour to Ammoudia this morning?"

Usagi smiled awkwardly and laughed, "_Uh, yeah.._ You don't have a brother, do you?"

Rei elbowed Usagi, just as Mamoru clamped a hand over her mouth and blurted out, "_**Yes!**_ Yes, that's us, alright!"

"Very well," the guide smiled, then turned, motioning towards the boat. "My name is Chiral—"

Usagi and Minako screamed, but Makoto jumped forward to protect her Princess, as did Luna. Mamoru noticed that Ami had paled significantly and, uncharacteristically, had closed her computer and was frozen. In fear.

In his peripheral vision, Mamoru saw Rei approach the man and poke him in the arm. Rei's face grew angry and she insisted, "Okay, what's going on here, Chiral? And where's your buddy Achiral?" She then poked Chiral again, this time in the chest, and demanded, "Didn't think we'd **_forget_**, did ya?"

Chiral looked puzzled as Makoto joined Rei in the offensive posturing; Mamoru patted Usagi's back and loudly said, "Excuse us, Mr. ..um, _Chiral_…" The name stuck in his throat, even though he inherently knew that this man could not be the droid from the 30th Century. But Mamoru was just as poleaxed as the girls that this man who shared an uncanny similarity to the future droid _also_ shared the droid's name.

Helios stepped forward and produced the necessary documentation for their voyage, completely ignoring the ruckus behind him. "They don't get out much," the priest growled.

Chiral rolled his eyes, thinking, '_Foreigners._' He took a calming breath and glared past the albino priest before him, to the two young women threatening him: "My family's been in tourism for years; they named all of us thinking it would be a nice gimmick, to get more clients. —my brother is actually named _Charon_, so I consider myself lucky. But if you're that superstitious and don't want to take the tour due to _my name_; there's a large line of parties waiting behind you who'd be happy to take your place."

Mamoru felt the challenge in Chiral's voice, as if to dare them to wait several days for another chance to have a personal escort through the ancient country to Parga. Dante's infamous voyage. He doubted his Usa knew much about it, but he also doubted it would be the simple touristy trek that the brochures would normally lead him to believe. Not with Helios insistent upon this party of magical beings going on the trip, and so suddenly.

"Superstitious?" the fiery Rei asked. "Look here, bucko, there's nothing _superstitious_ about trying to set negative energy points throughout greater Tokyo—"

"REI!" Ami said, finally gaining her legs and running towards her friend. "He.. he means superstitious about, um, _mythology_! You know… the man who ferried the dead to Hell? _Charon_."

"Right," Mamoru said tightly, exhaling in relief that Rei had been quieted before scaring their ferryman off with stories of future droids attacking his future daughter's school in TOKYO. "And, no, we're not superstitious, Chiral; just a little _surprised_." He was trying hard to recover. "I'm surprised you haven't had similar reactions, ferrying people on the Acheron like this!"

"Is that where we are?" Usagi whispered to Minako.

Minako shrugged and whispered back: "Don't ask me! I thought we were in Greece."

Chiral looked at the men of the group and sneered, "No; most tourists are **enchanted** with the idea of taking the trip."

"As are we," Ami said quickly, then picked up some bags and moved towards the watercraft. With as much perkiness as she could manage, she gleamed, "I'm ready when you are!"


	5. The Second and Third Circles

**an unsatisfying tale of separation. **

.

chapter 5.

"And this trip will make you better," Usagi said plainly, clearly not believing. Or, in her own mind, not wanting to believe. While the initial leg of the boat ride was actually quite stunning, with all the trees and birds, this section was quickly becoming spooky after a significant drop in the river, after which the trees had disappeared, replace by rocky cliffs on either side.

Mamoru leaned over the railings with Usagi and whispered, "Helios suggested it would help both of us, Usako; it shouldn't take long to get to Parga."

"The only thing wrong with me is a lack of shopping opportunities," Usagi complained, then turned around —only to see Chiral staring at her again. He looked away, then continued steering them towards some spooky caves in the mountain-side…

Ami said, "These are the blue caves, right?"

Chiral nodded, still irritated by these ladies' earlier behavior. Normally by this point, he would have pointed out several things of interest, but this group had offended him so much that he could barely bring himself to speak.

Makoto was sitting near Rei, chatting about her latest desired conquest, some guy in their grade. Mamoru couldn't help but overhear them; Rei was complaining that Yuuichirou had been getting far too friendly lately, and that Makoto should watch who she threw herself at. Mamoru tried hard to focus on anything else; he knew for a fact that Yuuichirou was completely a gentleman around Rei. If anything, Yuri had sought him out, asking how he could get Rei off _his_ back. He didn't think Rei was a liar, but he did think there was a big miscommunication going between them.

Usagi scooted closer to him, and he tucked her into his chest. Mamoru, for himself, started remembering some uncomfortable things from his earlier years… women, many even older than him, who'd thrown themselves at him even after he'd found his Princess. He'd handled such women with aplomb, never wanting to offend anyone, but not interested in being with anyone but Usagi —even though she'd been completely ignoring him most of the last few years. No; he'd held onto his dreams, and now they were within his grasp. Finally. He bent over and kissed her head.

Then chuckled to himself as Usagi joined the other squealing girls at the front of the boat to see the entrance of the blue caves. He had a feeling they'd thank Helios for this river trip once it was over, and hopefully that whatever his illness was, would be resolved by that time, as well. And maybe Usako as well would get a message from the Moon Queen about her future, or whatever she was supposed to get out of journey, and they could all go home to prepare for their magnificent future. He smiled contentedly and looked behind him, and saw, in what had been the wretched bottom of a cliff, a somewhat beautiful paradise of greens and grasses.

He turned fully, stunned at the sudden change of scenery. "Chiral!" he yelled out, but when he turned back, he found the boat empty. "USAKO!" he yelled, moving across the boat in record time only to find himself _out of the boat_ and on the grass of the place he'd been staring at. Without inspecting it, he charged back into the river, looking for the boat, or signs of Usagi and the rest of his party.

But no matter how hard he pushed himself back upstream, he never seemed to make any progress.

Finally, he calmed himself and remembered Helios' advice — to relax, to experience the trip as fully as possible. If he wanted to get better.

He'd been furious that the priest had spoken in riddles when his body was supposedly growing sick, but Helios had remained firm in his secrecy. Maybe in part because Mamoru had insisted on being completely honest with Usagi about everything. But he was the Earth Prince! This was ridiculous!

Mamoru climbed out of the river and back onto the banks of the "paradise" he'd seen from the boat not twenty minutes ago. He dropped to his knees, exhausted from his efforts, and wondered if he were supposed to explore this place.

.

Helios was first off the boat, and Chiral reached for the girls to help them off the boat and into one of the blue caves. Even Luna and Artemis got caught up in the excitement about the mystical blue cave and wanted to take in the sights. But when Rei tried to follow, Chiral caught her arm and shook his head: "This is not for you." —And suddenly Rei found herself alone on the boat. Eyes wide, she looked all around, ready to call for help, but the boat was no longer near any caves; there was nobody in sight! Knowing an enemy was afoot, she reached for her transformation wand and …_found it gone_. Her mouth suddenly dry, she calmed herself for a few moments and tried it again. Nothing.

The wind then picked up considerably, pushing the watercraft swiftly past sheer cliffs. Rei continued trying to find any life sign anywhere in these surroundings, but finally got sick of being blown about by the winds and ducked down into the boat for protection. She half-wondered if a certain male-wannabe Senshi from Uranus was around with these incredible winds...

She heard her name called, and by a man who melted her heart and made her feel somewhat Minako-bubbly inside. She straightened her wind-blown hair and sat up in the boat again, looking for Yuuichirou, then called, "Yuri?"

She felt like a fool instantly; he couldn't possibly be here! He wasn't even in Greece!

—she huddled herself in a corner of the boat and pulled a blanket over herself. She had contemptuously refused to get giggly and goofy over a man; any man; even Yuuichirou! It simply wasn't her calling! Nor did she want to end up suffering like Usagi had, who'd been crushed by her 'true love' years ago. —Sure, they were back together now, but not because Usagi had accepted his poor behavior. Not at all; for years, and against everyone's advice, even Rei's, Usagi had stood firm against taking Mamoru back just because she was 'supposed' to. She'd stood firm in her belief that her future city would be not be governed by treachery. And when she had taken Mamoru back, she'd done so on her own terms.

Well, _after_ they'd all died except Usagi.

But it had been a very painful few years, and Rei wasn't sure she wanted to make _that_ kind of sacrifice for any guy. But then there was the lingering problem of Yuuichirou, to whom she was very attracted. She smiled thinking of him. She had decided to go on dates with Yuri, and over the last several months, she'd allowed herself to get caught up in the moment after such outings. It had been foolish, she supposed; they both lived at her grandfather's shrine, and would end up making out like typical teenagers on one of their beds, or in the bathroom, or even by her fires on one such unfortunate occasion!

But the fact was, she wouldn't have stopped him on any of those occasions; her desire for him had grown to almost lustful states, and she felt herself wanting to succumb to his desires… But Yuri would always stop, not even touching her inappropriately while they were making out, and pushing her away gently as if he'd been the one going too fast. She would always take the "out" he offered, and stomp away as if she were offended that he'd taken such liberties.

She somehow knew now, on this boat, that she'd been fooling herself, but Yuri had never been fooled. Yuuichirou had wanted to preserve her purity, even though she'd pulled out all the stops to tempt him into giving in to her. She suddenly felt great shame, and huddled deeper into the boat, trying to push those embarrassing thoughts out of her mind. She would be absolutely determined to let Yuri make all the first moves from now on, and not get so angry when he didn't take what she might yet so obviously offer.

The winds continued to blow harder.

.

Ami was mesmerized by the opening of the cave, and started taking pictures as the rest of their party anxiously passed her by. "Helios?" she asked, stopping the priest. "Do you know this script?"

Helios was irritated to be held back, but he glanced up at the cave opening and said, "It looks like natural weathering to me."

Ami shook her head: "No; no, look at the unnatural straight lines! And some of the features repeat themselves—"

Ami realized that Helios was gone, and considered following him into the cave, but she just knew if she could capture these images from several angles, she could preserve the writing and possibly figure out later what script it might be. Maybe even what it said! And that was sure to be worth a paper one day; maybe even a published paper!

.

Makoto swallowed, even while Minako and Usagi splashed happily in the cave's natural springs, with Helios shepherding them all. She wasn't sure what the other girls were seeing, but SHE was seeing Adonis, and Paris, and all sorts of hunky, delicious men that reminded her of her past boyfriends. Now THIS was the kind of vacation she had been hoping for! At least Usagi had Mamoru for an excuse, but why wasn't Minako up here drooling with her?

One man, a large, blonde babe, fell at her feet and stared up at her, and with the deepest voice she'd ever heard, said, "You must be the goddess who makes ambrosia."

Makoto was focused on his huge muscles covered with a glistening of sweat; she felt faint. "Uh, …_pie_."

The man had grabbed her hand and started kissing it; she felt weak at the knees, and suddenly swooned into his arms! But when his mouth closed on hers, she kicked out, trying to scramble away. Yes he was beautiful, but …she didn't know him! "Stop!" she finally mumbled through his overpowering kisses.

She tried to jump up before the two blondes saw her, but the man had his hands on her shirt, pulling at it. She instinctively kneed his ribcage, leaving her legs open enough for the hulk to get a hand between her legs. Crying out, she kept scrambling away; she'd never been overpowered; at least, not like _this_! "Let go!' she cried.

And quickly Usagi and Minako were on top of her, giggling and tickling her instead of …instead of what they should be doing! Which was admonishing her for making out with a stranger! She looked around anxiously for the beast, but he was gone, as were the other men she'd seen. Seconds earlier.

But Chiral was there, behind her, glaring down at her. He reached a hand between the blondes, prompting Makoto to take it and stand up. Which she did. Chiral asked, "Are you ready to return to the boat?"

She glanced at the suddenly-appearing Helios who, unlike the girls, seemed to see through to her soul. She blushed and coughed out a rough, "Yes."

As they returned, Minako and Usagi followed behind Chiral, completely unaffected, and smiling at all the neat things in the cave.

Helios slid up beside Makoto and said, "This particular journey for Mamoru's healing might benefit many of us, no?"

"What?" Makoto said, still shaken and a little put out.

Helios merely nodded and said, "You look very pale; I assume you've had a vision."

"Yeah.. _guess_ you could say that," Makoto stammered, holding her shirt closed. "This place is evil, Helios."

When Helios passed Makoto, Luna and Artemis slowed and watched the Senshi of Jupiter disappear outside. Artemis hissed quietly, "I don't like this so-called _healing journey_, Luna."

"Me, neither. It almost feels like we're stuck in the Time Door again, doesn't it," Luna agreed.

But both of their charges, Usagi and Minako, were safe and sound, and even seemed happy. Upon exiting the cave, the advisors had to rouse Ami from her place in front of cave, where she was furiously snapping pictures. She was rue to go, but still very excited about what she'd captured for later processing.

.

Mamoru watched in horror as apparent orgies were starting, then disappearing, then starting again; over and over. The one he'd been most fascinated with, a creature that looked a lot like Beryl, had stripped off her shirt, begging to be touched by her invisible lover; and when he'd appear, he'd almost touch her… she would close her eyes for what he knew was the sheer rapture of anticipation! —but each time, her would-be lover would be blown back opposite the woman. She'd scream in anguish, and he could hear her male counterpart making furious sounds, as well, shaking the already rocky ground.

The others pairs, further beyond the first, were all the same; they were all hungry for each other, like wild beasts, but only on a superficial level — nothing at all like true love should manifest itself physically. Indeed, initially, he'd felt kinship with the struggle of anticipation, waiting so damned long for the one you loved to come to you. Yes, he knew that feeling all too well, though he was a bona fide expert at suppressing it. Usako had been far too young when they first dated, and then she'd kept him at bay for years because he'd sided with his future self. …But even now that they were three-days engaged, and she was more open than ever to his advances, his time to be sated of his desire was finally at hand. She was his for the claiming, and he intended to stake that claim in a way she'd never forget…

He grew sick as these strange beings at the river side tried to grope each other madly, possibly no longer caring who it was they tried to grope anymore. They'd been so overtaken by the desire, it seemed they were doomed to never have that itch scratched. What might have started out as love had turned them all to operatives of a base instinct; a mere fleeting emotion that no longer had anything to do with fondness, or companionship. They were beasts. He'd finally grown so disgusted that he walked backwards, faster and faster, until he splashed into the river behind him.

And straight into Helios; Mamoru turned on the priest viciously and snapped, "Where WERE you? —Is everyone else okay?"

"They're more than okay," Helios offered quietly, still looking at the scene behind Mamoru. "And you? Has your healing started yet, Endymion?"

Mamoru grew furious: "This? These filthy orgies, Helios? What on EARTH would they have to do with me?"

Helios smirked, which served only to enrage Mamoru further, and the dark man shoved the priest and said, "Are you saying I'm sick because I want to take the next step with my fiancée? Seriously, Helios?"

Helios looked surprised — he'd quite frankly believed that Mamoru had already deflowered 'his Usako' — but was inwardly disappointed at the Prince's lack of insight. "Endymion, I don't control any visions you might have during this journey. I might see them because we have a bond, but I have nothing to do with this." He added, "—Maybe you should keep in mind that this is your mind, your journey. Not mine. And you simply _must_ keep your mind open to all healing opportunities." He added, "Remember that you have lived another life, as well."

Mamoru looked at him blankly, making Helios realize this 'healing' might be a bit harder than he'd imagined. Finally, Helios said, "The Silver Millennium, Endymion."

Mamoru shrugged; sure, he'd lived that life, but… "Even as Endymion I don't recall having an issue with overpowering _lust_!"

Helios said flatly, "Very well. This is YOUR journey, Endymion. Extract from it what you will."

Mamoru hissed, "I'm _Mamoru_ now, not 'Endymion' —maybe this is a trip _the Future Endymion_ needs to make, because I can't account for any of this …debased _hentai_!"

"He couldn't possibly make such a trip," Helios said angrily, then grabbed Mamoru's hand and transported them back to the watercraft.


	6. The Fourth Circle

**an unsatisfying tale of separation.**

.

chapter 6.

The river had gotten much more circuitous and shallow. Chiral had announced that this was unusual, and unfortunate, and that they would all need to disembark and help pull the boat along the shallow area of the river, but advised them to not look to either side so they wouldn't get distracted and destroy the water craft.

Usagi wasn't too happy with this leg of the journey. Shortly after stepping off the boat and into the mucky riverbed, she noticed that the 'river' was barely a trickle any longer: "Mamoru, how did we get here?"

Helios, who seemed to be floating on the other side of the boat without a struggle against the muck, said, "And _THAT_ is the question! Maybe we should all follow Tsukino Usagi's lead and consider the same thing."

Mamoru glared at Helios, but said to Usagi: "Rivers can dry up, Usako. And Chiral said this was unusual. We'll probably see water after we pass that drop ahead."

"I was thinking the same thing," Ami said. "Chiral, are you sure this is so unusual? …in _Dante's Inferno_, there's a precipitous drop between the Circles of Hell, just like we've experienced."

Chiral was at the front of the craft, watching for difficult paths to steer clear of. "This isn't a _circle of Hell_; this is a river. But I'll admit I've never seen it quite this low before."

"Usagi?" Minako said, having long since stopped hoisting her side of the boat to stare at the most beautiful sight she'd seen thus far: A MALL! Complete with a parking lot filled with cars, and signs indicating that some of the most wonderful stores in the world were here… HERE! In some backwoods country of Greece! —but of course they would be! Capitalism at its finest: who _wouldn't_ stick a mall in the midst of an otherwise boring travel destination?!

She turned around finally, only to see that her entire party was gone. "Huh," she mused, turning back to gaze at the hoardes of people behind her stamping towards the wonderful building. She turned back towards the building, and thought she saw some tell-tale streamers of blonde hair near a door already! She took off running, feeling the feeding frenzy of those around her and joining with the sea of humanity to make it to the best sales in the world!

Before she knew it, the bells were ringing and people were coming upon her, smiling widely. She felt like a star! "Hi," she said to each of them, and they bestowed her with a gift card for winning a door prize. Her eyes gouged the card, and soon she was behind a makeup counter, grabbing several colors of glosses for her and all her friends! In her frenzy, she glanced beside her and saw another blonde who looked a lot like herself, but who was wearing all the wrong colors! "No, dear," she said, jerking the hideous orange polish from the summer-toned lady. She quickly replaced it with a lovely bottle of blue: "Here: you need this shade!" Mina gleefully helped with the application of the polish. While doing so, she saw that the lady had shopping bags from all the nicest clothing stores, and her heart started racing.

"There's a sale in the jewelry department!" the lady told Mina. "Look at these!" and showed off her new earrings.

Minako gleamed: "Jewelry department!" She raced through the lovely departments, even grabbing handbags and belts and shoes as she went. Some kind soul gave her a shopping cart, and she dropped the items in while seeking this jewelry department. "Jewelry!" Minako gleamed, looking at some of the finest jewels, and imagining them hanging about her friends' necks, at their ears, on their fingers. She swooped the whole display into the cart, not caring that most of it fell out and hit the floor, because ahead of her were the evening gowns…

She was fitted with handcuffs and dragged through a forest roughly. Screaming, she reached for her transform wand while crying for help—

And was quieted by a giant beast. "Helios?" she croaked out, lying on the ground and looking up at magnificent horse legs.

She heard a whinny so loud that she buried her face in the wet forest ground. But the she was picked up and brought high into the air by the back of her shirt. She tried to scream, but the sound didn't come forth.

And finally she was staring at a human-looking face. She winced as tears ran down her face, but managed to say, "Hello?"

.

Ami had seen the mall as well, and beat feet to the most beautiful bookstore she'd ever seen. She stood at the base of bookshelves that extended beyond her vision, staring up at volumes of books so old, yet in such pristine condition, that she couldn't imagine EVER leaving here. "Nirvana," she sighed, then started climbing the ladder towards the most prized volumes. …she couldn't help, though, but pick up several tomes on her way up as she passed them. "A real, actual, COPERNICUS!" she squealed, then sat on the ladder, placing her other books aside, to grasp her new find and open it.

Ahh; the best smell in the world: the fresh scent of a brand new book! She would never leave here…

.

"Can you be beautiful without those things?"

Minako hiccuped, wondering what things this horrible beast was talking about… the jewelry, the… _the stuff from the mall?_ She stared in fear at the beast, and shook her head 'no'.

The giant grunted, but walked her through the forest without dropping her. The petrified Minako screamed, "You're a vision! I overheard Helios talking about this! Let me GO!"

But the half-horse, half-man kept walking, and walked right up to a waterfall, then swung little Minako under the water. She had to stop screaming so she wouldn't drown, but then she was coughing and sputtering, and started kicking her legs fretfully at the beast who would hold her under the torrents of cold water—

Just as suddenly, she was set down. She swallowed, the opened her eyes. The beast was gone, and she was sitting on a large shell in the midst of a river. Not the Acheron, she thought, as this water seemed so much fresher than the sludge they'd been in before the mall. Still crying just from the experience, she considered trying to stand up, but her legs were too shaky. She reached for her communicator, but saw ahead of her another waterfall, in which there was another like her, also sitting in a shell. Mina breathed in relief and waved at the beautiful sea nymph, only to realize it was her reflection.

She stared as the beast came back in the reflection; he was beside her. She twisted to look up at him, and he said, "My name is Charon. I believe your party is looking for you."

.

"They're just tired," Usagi said, kneeling by the reclined forms of Ami and Minako. Helios had stopped the group upon seeing the girls stumbling on unsteady feet, and then they all set the boat down and moved the tired girls to the riverbank.

"They might be sick," Makoto said worriedly. They hadn't planned on any of them getting sick on this damned journey! She looked at Helios as if for an answer, but the priest was happily tending some stupid trees as if nothing was wrong.

"They don't feel warm," Rei said softly, cuddling Ami's head. "I think Usa-chan's right."

After a short time, Ami started coming to; and then she suddenly sat up and cried loudly that she'd only _dreamed_ of being in a mall. While Mamoru, Makoto, and Rei grew quiet upon learning that even Ami had experienced a vision, Usagi asked excitedly what on earth _Ami_, of all people, had seen in a mall that she wanted so much. "You're dreaming of MALLS? But you never want to go to the mall with us!" Usagi pouted playfully.

While Ami couldn't explain her great loss to Usagi and didn't even make the attempt, Minako was starting to rouse by then, much to everyone's relief. Usagi said, "Wow, you look like you just woke up from a long night's sleep!"'

Minako looked directly at Chiral and said to the girls, "I think I saw his _brother_ in …well." She fought for a way to explain what she'd experienced. "Well, he was in my dream… I think."

"What was your dream about?" Usagi asked excitedly.

Mamoru and Helios had joined them by now, noting that while Ami looked almost haunted, Minako seemed very relaxed. Mina looked at Usagi and said, "I'm not exactly sure, but it was …exhilarating!"

Helios smiled widely, looking knowingly at Endymion; THIS was how one should experience a vision on their journey!

Mamoru, who'd been unable to rid himself of his own vision on this journey, wondered if maybe he'd pushed Usagi too fast yesterday. Ami was clearly still disturbed by her vision, while Minako, of all people, seemed exhilarated after hers. And he didn't imagine this was a place where one's visions would be overly pleasant.

But he got sick of Helios' cryptic looks his way and glowered, "They needed the sleep, after being on that plane all night."

Ami interrupted anxiously: "Has anyone else here had very realistic visions? VERY realistic?"

Rei shook her head 'no' but looked away; nobody had noticed that they'd left her behind on the boat, which had hurt her feelings immensely. She knew there was something strange about this trip. She, however, wasn't about to own up to _her own_ weirdo vision of Yuri; that would be like announcing to the world, '_I tried to screw Yuri and he wasn't interested! Hello! Loser here_!'

Makoto, however, nodded: "Sort of, I guess. Back in that cave."

Usagi looked surprised and said, "But you were hanging out with us the whole time! You didn't fall asleep or anything, did she Rei-chan?"

Rei just glared at Usa and Minako, but they were really looking at her expectantly, as if she had been with them.

Helios interrupted the memory-fest sternly: "This is all part of the journey, but I'm afraid that sharing information might not be the best way to attain our goals."

"Excuse me," Rei said angrily, wondering just what had been real for her: had she been abandoned in the boat, or had she gone into the blue cave with everyone else? "—I think we've gotten into trouble before by not sharing information." She was unable to help herself; she glared at Mamoru. He'd been the one who had stopped the Senshi from following Usagi all those years ago in Crystal Tokyo, telling them that their Princess had just needed a moment to herself. Rei had balked at the notion, especially because it had been in a war zone, but then the future King Endymion told them that she would be protected just outside of the palace. It had been a lie; a lie that had affected them all for _years_. Good reason or not, keeping secrets had nearly destroyed them as a group.

Helios sighed and said, "Again, we are on a journey to _heal the Prince_; we are not being attacked like you were in Crystal Tokyo!"

Makoto disagreed with that wryly, saying, "Yeah right," …but then quickly turned away. And of course all the girls gathered around her and asked if she'd been attacked; they needed to know…

Mamoru piped up then and said, "Alright, if **any** of us have an experience that's just too …_disturbing_, we need a safe word. And if any of us say the safe word, we agree to leave immediately."

"I handled it," Makoto growled to Mamoru. Because yes, it had been disturbing, but it _was_ just a vision. "This trip is for our planet, Mamoru. And in case you forgot, your priest said it was required for the Princess, too! No way we're leaving because of a few tough dreams."

Minako said softly, "And maybe the visions are trying to tell us something." She glanced at Helios and asked, "Something we need to learn?"

"Oh give me a BREAK!' Mamoru sneered.

"Thank you," Helios smiled to the Senshi. "You have to understand that when undertaking a journey with the hopes of saving a planet, things might not always be pleasant. HOWEVER, all your experiences should be …_cleansing_!"

Mamoru growled at that; upon hearing that Makoto had been 'attacked' in some way, he worried that Usagi might get a vision of Prince Dimande again, and that disturbed him. "No. Helios, I can continue the journey alone; they shouldn't be put through this."

"You don't get to make that decision for us, Mamoru!" Rei argued, stopping before she said, '_like last time'_. She really, REALLY needed to hold her tongue; this was Usagi's fiancée and their future king; and if Usagi had gotten over it, she knew she should, as well. She looked at Helios and said, "I admit, I had an …_experience_. And I know this isn't easy, but I'm with Makoto here — it's to save the planet! Of course it's going to be hard!"

Usagi blanched: that meant she was the only one here who hadn't had some wild, crazy waking dream. It made her nervous, and she grabbed onto Mamoru's arm tightly.

"It'll be fine, Usako," Mamoru said firmly, thinking it had damned well better be fine. He stared icily at Helios, who averted his gaze.

At that moment, Chiral turned and snapped his fingers, then he said, "The water is flowing freely again; we can get the boat going now."

.

Sitting down in defeat as the girls chatted amongst themselves, Mamoru put a hand to his head and whispered: "Great. The next Circle of Hell."

Helios patted his back carefully and said, "Not much longer, good Prince. But I'd suggest we stay on the boat through the rest of this trip, if at all possible." _They'd be safe as long as they didn't hit the water,_ Helios thought uneasily.

Unfortunately, as Usagi was walking over to sit with Mamoru, she thought she saw someone walking on the riverbank. "How strange," she smiled… and then saw clearly that it was a friend — Hotaru! —and moved to leave the craft, screaming Hotaru's name!

Mamoru had grabbed her and pulled her close, then looked over at Helios, who'd motioned for him to stop her.

"Mamo-chan! That was Hotaru!" Usagi complained, although she didn't see the girl any longer. She shook her head and continued to look around. "I know it was!" '_She must have just run into the brush,_' she thought uneasily.

"Nobody's there, Odango," Rei smirked, but nervously looked out in the direction Usa was looking. All the girls had gathered around the Princess who'd almost leaped off the damned boat, but Rei had Usa's wrist in an vice grip, just as surely as Mamoru held her from behind. "And even if they were, we wouldn't go leaping to our DEATHS to say hi! _**Capiche**_?"

"Nevermind that," Mamoru said. "Helios said we needed to stay in the boat. Usako, you probably just had a vision like the rest of us—"

"I haven't!" Usagi complained, turning to face Mamoru. "Not a one; it's just been a long boat trip, and…!" But then she trailed off, blushing. "I suppose it wouldn't make sense for Hotaru to be out here." She asked Helios, "Would seeing Sailor Saturn out here count as a vision, Helios?"

"I cannot account for it," Helios said sternly, trying to cover his horror. So this was it—

"I think it was wishful thinking," Rei snapped. "You just don't want to be the only one who HASN'T had a vision!"

"That's not TRUE, Rei-chan!" Usagi squealed.

Helios ignored the squabbling and looked ahead, beyond Chiral the ferryman, and found that he was unable to see around the incredible bend coming up. He swallowed, worried about what he now felt might be coming up. He felt sorry for the Prince, and turned back to frown at Mamoru, wishing he could will into him some sense, and strength, that he wasn't sure the young man had. Indeed, this ride was about to get bumpy. —er.

* * *

><p>.<p>

**Now mayst thou see, my son! how brief, how vain,  
>The goods committed into Fortune's hands,<strong>  
><strong> For which the human race keep such a coil!<strong>  
><strong> Not all the gold that is beneath the moon,<strong>  
><strong> Or ever hath been, of these toil-worn souls<strong>  
><strong> Might purchase rest for one.<strong> — Dante, Inferno, Canto VII

.


	7. The Fifth Circle

**an unsatisfying tale of separation.**

.

chapter 7.

They were now flowing gently through a lush valley, which was a far sight better than the journey so far. Rei leaned back against the boat and stared up at the sky, feeling cleansed, somehow, of her wrongful feelings against Yuuichirou. She was no longer angry that he always turned her away; she was instead ashamed of her behavior. And it was her every intention to treat him with far greater respect from now on; she wished there were a cellular signal out here so she could call him immediately.

Ami watched all the trees with rapt interest, knowing that they each had the potential to become some of those books that had gotten her heart pumping. Almost lustily, she said, "This is the best place in the world!"

Helios watched her carefully, although covertly; the journey had indeed seemed to sing to Ms. Mizuno's soul almost from the start. She had a hunger for knowledge that he knew would serve them all very well.

Makoto was kneeling at the edge of the boat, watching Mamoru and Usagi, and deciding that she needed what they had; to find one man, a realistic man — although a hot, sturdy, madly-in-love with her man… _a soulmate_! She smiled over at Ami and thought how the only guy here fit for the soulmate job was Mamoru, and he was taken. "I can't wait to get back home," she responded to Ami.

"Me neither," Rei said softly. She couldn't stop from _wanting_ to be desired by Yuuichirou, but she could show him the respect he'd so decidedly earned from her. Her luscious thoughts were disturbed by Mina, and Rei snapped: "Mina would you leave my hair ALONE?"

"I'm just braiding it," Minako said with a smile.

"No, you're making a MESS of it," Rei hissed, pulling her hair away from Minako's hands. "I don't want to look like the Odango! I like my hair _down_," she pouted.

Rei glanced at the other girls and noticed that they all had new hairstyles. Makoto's was loosened and brushed nicely; Ami's was curled tightly, although Rei couldn't decide how Minako had put a perm in someone's hair in the middle of the Journey To Hell. And Odango's hair was completely screwed up, all piled up on top of her head in a giant, beehive-looking chignon. Wide-eyed, Rei looked at the almost-zombiefied version of her friend and whispered, "Are you SURE you're okay, Mina-chan?"

"Never better!" Minako sang. She decided to go over by the ferryman and check him out up close. His brother had made her feel so wonderful, and just by 'rescuing' her from a mall, that she wished to know more about him. But on getting closer to Chiral, Minako felt repulsed. She was sure it was due to his uncanny resemblance to Esmeraude's droid, though. Coupled with the fact that he had a creepy job on a creepy river… She braced herself and whispered, "I saw your brother."

Chiral sighed and said, "I assure you, you did not."

Minako felt that ever-present creeper Helios behind her, probably ready to pull her away from the ferryman, but she wanted to have this conversation. She smiled and said, "I'm sure I did, Chiral. He told me his name; and I can describe him. He was… oh, say, super tall! Ten feet at least! And he had a pleasant enough face." She winced… "For a horse..."

Chiral said through gritted teeth, "That would have been CHIRON THE CENTAUR," …_you insufferable ditz!_ Chiral was not a little offended that this blonde bimbo was suggesting that HE was related to a beast such as that!

"Yep! Your brother!" Minako said. "At first I thought he was trying to kill me, but Chiral, he was so amazing! And very gentle—!"

The ferryman turned and looked down behind him: "Don't you have your own friends with whom you can converse?" He turned back to the river, sensing the girl was gone, and considered ramming the boat into the cliffs as a favor to the worlds.

.

Mamoru had been resting against the boat, uneasy about the rest of the trip, but trying to enjoy his fiancée's body. —_company_! —_Companionship!_ Strictly platonic and innocent love. Zero lust. None! Until they were married. Which had better be soon—_  
><em>

"What's wrong?" Usa asked, letting her hand glide languidly from his belly to his thigh. "You just tensed up," she said, —and actually, he just tensed up more! "Mamoru, are you okay? Are you sick? Do you detect something evil out there? Should I get the girls?"

He wrapped his arms around her and said, "No, Usako. I'm just edgy. I'd like to be finished with this journey and en route back home." Then he pulled her ear to his mouth, and whispered earnestly, "Usako, I'm worried."

"About what?" Usagi asked, alarmed, trying to lean back to look at him, but he had her head in a vice grip. Which might have worried her more, if his thumb hadn't been caressing her bottom lip so softly. Still, his words were scaring her a bit…

"Something could be wrong with me," he whispered. "And we aren't even married yet." He placed a kiss on her ear and whispered hoarsely, "I don't want to wait a year to be married. We ..we could get married here! In Greece!"

Usagi smiled and patted his hand. He wanted to elope! But she hadn't brought a thing to wear, and plus, he was sick. And her mother would kill her—

"Usako, let's just do it," Mamoru whispered. Then his eyes flew open wide and he quickly asserted, "Get married, I mean—!"

"I ..guess?" Usagi said, though more worried for him than desiring to elope on this crazy river. He was so insistent, though. "Sure," she smiled, trying to reassure him, and getting squeezed ever harder for it. She started to fear he was dying!

"YOU TWO!" Makoto yelled, suddenly standing right in front of them. The other girls soon surrounded her, and they all saw Mamoru duck his head behind Usagi's back.

"He's not feeling well," Usagi said defensively. "I wish you'd give him a little space, Mako-chan."

"Yeah, come on, Makoto," Rei said angrily, although she doubted Mamoru was sitting there licking Usa's ear because he was 'so sick'. "I guess it's _**his**_ trip; let's let him have _**his **_fun." —and she truly hoped Usa realized the man was just trying to get her into bed for a quick romp. She turned her nose up in disgust.

"Fun?" Usagi snapped, now pushing away from Mamoru to stand up. "Look here, Rei, we're here because he's SICK and the WHOLE PLANET could be in DANGER!" The quick movement had shaken her hair loose, and she angrily reached up and started pulling out all the pins Mina had planted in her hair… _'freakin Minako!'  
><em>

Minako was quickly by Usa's side, helping her restyle her hair: "And let's not forget that our Princess has a role on this journey as well, Rei-chan." She glanced over at their ferryman and said huskily, "I can _definitely_ see how such a trip could help _any_ of us." And _WHEW_ she felt heated up just thinking about her vision of Chiron …but upon remembering that Chiron had been a horse/man, she accidentally jerked a hairpin from Usa's hair too hard, causing the Princess to jump, and bringing her back to reality again. She swallowed and finger-combed Usagi's loosened hair, then forced a smile and looked at Makoto and Rei: "Anyway I don't see why they can't have a little private time on this journey. After all, love makes the world go round!"

But Usagi had seen Minako apparently_ lusting after Chiral_, spun around, and smacked her arm but good. She whispered harshly, "Have you lost your mind! He's ..he's a DROID!"

"Usa-chan, you have it all wrong," Minako blushed. "He, um… just reminded me of what I saw in my vision!"

"You had a HENTAI VISION?" Usagi exclaimed, far too loudly, then harrumphed and sat down near Mamoru to fix her hair back.

But Rei and Makoto had fallen into a poorly-disguised argument about Mamoru's '_needs_', and grabbed Usagi's arm to jerk her back up and into the fight. And then Luna jumped in with _her_ opinion about the Earth Prince. Mamoru wanted to jump ship and disappear into the river.

But finally Chiral turned and yelled to them all: "BE **QUIET!**"

"It's… okay," Mamoru said quietly, standing up. He'd expected this. He'd just KNOWN how the trip would go with all the Senshi around to 'protect' Usagi_.__ KNOWN!_ He and Usagi would never get a moment alone as long as her band of she-devils were with them.

.

Another hour passed in relative silence as the forest surrounding them turned even more lush. And finally Usagi grew restless and wanted to have a walk in the beautiful lands. She insisted they stop, if only for a little bit.

"We're close to a stopping point," Helios warned, agitated. "If we could just please, _sit here_; enjoy this leg of the journey." —_while it is yet pleasant_, he left unsaid.

Only rarely did people listen to Helios. He figured it was because, while he might carry some air of authority with his true appearance, none of these people besides the Prince had any reason to listen to him. It made a journey such as this somewhat dangerous, but there'd been nobody else, and Endymion was, after all, his charge.

And Endymion's Princess? Well, he didn't know much about her at all. Never had; not really. He cut a glance at Luna, who by all means should be able to handle the tempestuous girl.

The waters were low, though, and of course Usagi saw pretty butterflies in the gorgeous jungle ahead, and begged and whined to get closer. Mamoru shrugged at the disappointed Helios: "The lady calls," he said. "I'm sure it wouldn't take but a moment to stretch our legs."

"You can't wait even another hour," Helios deadpanned.

Mamoru sneered wryly, looking at the excited Usagi who'd been joined by most of the Senshi, all giggling and pointing at the tempting landscapes.

Helios motioned for Chiral to dock the boat, then turned to Mamoru. "Then you must go," Helios responded deeply. It wasn't, after all, _Helios'_ journey, but that of those on the boat.

And he watched the party disembark, and then observed the young Princess run off ahead of them all, giggling like a girl far younger than her seventeen years, but far older than anyone could ever suspect.

.

Mamoru stepped it up a bit: "Usako, wait up! …Rei, can you catch her?"

"Let's go, Ami-chan," Rei said, but not before Makoto and Minako playfully took off ahead of them. Rei glared and ran to catch up, but within moments, both Mina and Mako got caught up chasing their own butterflies. Rei shook her head in disbelief, but without slowing she ran beyond them, with Ami and Mamoru just behind.

Far ahead, Usagi leaped onto one bright blue butterfly, then landed hard on the lush jungle ground. Shaking her head, she looked up and saw a figure ahead of her, cutting through the trees. Her mind tickled, and she yelled, "Hotaru?"

Rei heard Usagi yelling for the absent Senshi and called, "Odango! Wait UP!" …but the Princess had disappeared into a dark cavern. As Ami and Mamoru arrived at her side, Rei said, dumbfounded, "You have got to be kidding me."

"She went in there?" Ami asked, taken aback. Because HELLO, Dangerous Trip! Probably a Trap!

Mamoru ran on ahead, and soon the dark cavern opened into an impossibly wide expanse of forest again. More alarmed than irritated now, Mamoru started running and yelled, "Usako? Come on, this isn't funny anymore…"

He was suddenly startled by a fallen body ahead of him, but forced himself to ignore it. No matter how germane it might seem to his journey, he jumped over a beheaded Zoicite and continued on his quest for Usagi single-mindedly. But soon he found that Zoicite was running along beside him, head attached and a large stick in hand. Mamoru easily knocked him aside, but then saw Kunzite ahead of him, aiming an arrow. Kunzite yelled, "By the gods you shall not live, Zoicite!"

"Move!" Mamoru hissed as he pushed by Kunzite, then called for Usagi again. He could only hope that the girls were behind him.

.

Rei tumbled and fell, then found herself with a sword in her hand, inexplicably watching Kunzite and Zoicite attacking each other with bronze-age weapons. '_But t__hey're dead!_' she argued with herself…

—just as she was knocked down from behind by two more Shitennou. She breathed easier as they ran past her, but then they turned again as if just noticing her, and charged at her with lances aimed at her throat! Rei dropped the heavy sword and held her hands out, calling up a Fire Mandala to protect herself from these demons! Fire shot from her hands, Phobos and Deimos landed on each of her arms, and then power surged through her… for just a moment, she felt like a god. Then the ravens disappeared, along with the toasted Nephrite and Jadeite, and the warring Zoicite and Kunzite — it was all gone!

But then she saw it in the grasses before her — the sword remained. She looked around the quiet forest, shaken by such a strong vision, but bent down and touched the hilt of the sword.

It had the symbol of Mars engraved in it. She jumped up and ran from it, trying to make her way through the maze of what was now a forest, so she could find her Princess.

.

A few moments later, Usagi turned the corner and _finally_ caught up to Hotaru, who was turned around and staring her down. "I KNEW I wasn't imagining—!"

Saturn grabbed her and spun her around another bend in the cave quite forcefully, pinning her against the wall and shushing her. She watched as the others ran on past them, then started to breathe easier again.

—causing Usagi to grin; it was just Mamoru and the girls following her! This was a strange game Hotaru was playing!

Saturn, still shaking from the close call, grabbed Serenity's hand and whispered, "You shouldn't be here. Or at least, you must not go further." With a concerned expression, Saturn finished: "But don't worry; you're not the only one in hiding around these parts. I suppose stranger things have happened." Though if pressed, Saturn couldn't say what stranger thing had ever happened.

"What do you mean?" Usagi asked, not really very nervous at all; just still recovering from the shock of seeing Hotaru in Greece and giving chase.

Saturn relaxed after ensuring again that they weren't being followed, then leaned against the wall beside Serenity: "I saw you running and knew you were hiding; that's all."

"Hiding from what?" Usagi asked, perplexed, but still smiling.

Saturn initially froze, but then laughed: "Oh come on! You wouldn't _be_ here if you weren't hiding, _Usagi-chan_!"

Usagi said, "But it's just the Inners following us—!"

"_Just the Inners_?" Saturn recoiled, confused. But then it hit her: "Oh! Those planetary Senshi? Gracious, then, why on earth were you _hiding_? We could've taken out those inept biddies easily!"

"Inept?" Usagi said, not a little offended. Sometimes she noticed a definite divide between the Inners and the Outers, and Hotaru certainly counted as an 'Outer' if ever there was one, but this took the cake! "Hotaru, I'll have you know that each of us is very powerful in her own right!"

Saturn sneered, "Oh come ON! You'd have me believe that even now? It was always too apparent that the two of us were far more powerful than those _Senshi_—"

"The two…?" Usagi shook her head. "No! _No,_ we all have different powers, of course, but we're about equal when it all shakes out." This girl was starting to worry her!

"Um, yeah," Saturn said, then spat. When Usagi recoiled in disgust, Saturn said, "Don't act like you're one of them, 'princess'. I believe we're far beyond that _here_."

Usagi was starting to feel upset, for real. "Huh?" she asked dumbly.

Saturn said, "That 'Moon Princess' crap!" And then the 'Princess' started to look truly upset, which made Saturn angry. "Fine, how long am I supposed to pretend that _**you**_ were born of a Titan, sister to Helios? —Oh, and of course," Saturn rolled her eyes. "Reborn as _S__ailor Moon_!"

"What's wrong with being Sailor Moon?" Usagi asked, —then a light went on in her head. "Sister to _**Helios**_?" Her breath caught— _Helios, as in, Mamoru's Helios? _"—Now wait a minute, Hotaru!"

Saturn rolled her eyes again, quite upset that the girl wasn't coming clean even here! "I've got it on good word that you had _no idea_ who Helios was when you met him!"

"That's …very true!" Usagi said defensively, though she didn't know what on earth she was being defensive about. "_**Duh!**_"

"You're admitting it then? That you're NOT Helios' sister, or niece, or _anything_?" Saturn pronounced in shock.

"Uh, I never claimed any of that stuff! …Hotaru, are you feeling okay?" Usagi asked, then felt the misguided Senshi's head.

"And stop this now!" Saturn sneered. "This 'Hotaru' business. —Did you forget that I was the king of the Titans?" At Serenity's blank stare, Saturn snapped, "Of course you did. It's things like this that always proved me that you _weren't_ of Hyperion's clan!"

Usagi jumped… a _Titan_? As in 'big people'? She shook her head: "I'm sorry; I have no idea what you're talking about, Hotaru! You might as well be speaking Greek!" —And then she laughed at herself, despite her terrible situation, because they _were_ in Greece, after all.

Saturn was really getting annoyed with Serenity now, but bit her tongue. She pointed her finger sternly and said, "You can play dumb all you want, but we both know you were no more a planetary Senshi than I was!"

Usagi immediately stopped laughing and nearly choked! "Hotaru!" She quickly felt the Senshi's head again, checking for a fever. Finding none, she anxiously said, "Hotaru, all this talk of Titans and …and _not being Senshi!_ Maybe you're …sea sick?" But Hotaru didn't feel warm, or even look very ill at all. "What _are_ you doing here? I should call Haruka…"

Saturn suddenly looked over her shoulder; Usagi asked what was wrong.

Saturn turned back to Serenity and grabbed her hands: "I'm being summoned." She then winked at Serenity and smiled, "—to the depths!" She sweetly reached over and kissed Serenity on the cheek, then disappeared into thin air.

"Hotaru?" Usagi screeched, looking around the cavern in horror. "HOTARU!" she called again. She heard footsteps…

* * *

><p>AN/

_Titan deities:__  
><em>**Cronus** (Saturn), father of the Titans, including Hyperion  
><strong>Hyperion<strong>, father of Helios, Eos, and Selene

_...But don't worry, I'm not going there_ :)


	8. Brother, Where Art Thou?

**an unsatisfying tale of separation. **

.

chapter 8.

After getting everybody back on board, and passing the next hour trying to learn about Usagi's experience with 'Hotaru', Mamoru angrily approached Helios and said, "We're ending this damned journey. _Now._"

Chiral suddenly appeared and pointed to a large building looming ahead of them. "Indeed you are; this is as far as I take you; your 'journey' on my ferry is over." _And Chiral couldn't have been happier._

Usagi couldn't have been happier to hear the news, either: "Great!" —Because she needed a break. Not only had Mamoru and the girls dismissed her story of Hotaru as a stupid vision, as if she were too dumb to tell a vision from a real person, but she couldn't even LOOK at Helios. '_No way some horned freak who doesn't e__ven like me much is related to me!_' she hissed inwardly.

"It was a vision," Mamoru said from behind, holding her shoulders firmly to stop her from fretting. "The girls and I all saw the Shitennou there; you saw Hotaru..."

"Did the Shitennou _**talk**_ to you, Mamo-Chan?" Usagi asked angrily. "Because the Shitennou are dead — THAT was a vision; THAT I believe. But Hotaru is NOT dead! Hotaru is alive and well, and I saw her and talked with her!" …although what the girl had said made absolutely no sense.

"But you won't say what she told you!" Rei argued.

"Yeah, Usa-chan; what did she say when you asked how she got here? Where was she going to go after leaving here?" Makoto asked, frustrated with rehashing this story over and over again. Usagi had kept mum about anything Hotaru might have said to her; she'd just insisted that the girl was there, and had then disappeared, and that they'd needed to go back and find her!

Usagi couldn't even find support from Minako, who had merely looked down sadly when pressed for her opinion. Usagi let Mamoru pull her against his chest, then she acquiesced, "Maybe it was just a vision, guys. But it really _did_ seem real."

—And somehow, Usagi just KNEW it had been real. She blinked away frustrated tears and set her sights on the town ahead, knowing that she couldn't win this argument when the whole boat seemed to be having visions.

"Where are we?" Luna asked, staring at the strange building they were now veering away from. "And what _is_ that?" she hissed.

"I think it's Dix," Ami said, a bit testily. Though it had been hours since her vision, Ami was still shaken by her own obsession with those invaluable books; she still had the desire to find those books again. She knew that this was some version of Hell and wanted off the boat as much as anyone else here, hoping that would end her unnatural yearnings for those particular tomes. —And after Usagi's strange vision that had led them on a wild goose chase through Mount Hell No, they were **all** ready to go _the hell_ back home.

Chiral said, "The large building we're passing is Ali Pasha's castle. You can get a tour of it from the mainland." And with that, he docked the ferry and announced: "We've arrived at Ammoudia."

"It's as far as we'd intended to come," Helios said, standing and heading towards the dock with several bags in his hands. He wouldn't even look at '_Ali Pasha's castle_'.

Mamoru had rushed Usagi off the boat, then anxiously awaited for everyone else, but then Usagi said she 'forgot' something and ran back at the last moment. She quickly approached Chiral and whispered, "I saw Saturn back there. _Sailor Saturn._ What is she doing here?"

Chiral merely smiled and gave her an envelope. He said, "You have to tell them you left something; give them this—"

"No," she squealed. "Are you this _Charon_ that leads the damned to Hell or not?" Usagi asked angrily, staring him down though she was more than a foot shorter than he.

Chiral nodded slightly, but more in an act of genuflection than in agreement. "You know who I am."

'_Yeah, a creepy droid_,' Usagi thought bitterly to herself. But she didn't think that was what Chiral had meant. Usagi bit her lip and, after a moment, said, "I don't like this 'Hell'. —Will you come with us, Chiral? You shouldn't be here, any more than anyone else."

The ferryman looked truly surprised, but stepped backwards and motioned her to the dock. "I'm helping you; that's what I do. …but if you were to remember me or my family in any way after your journey is over? —I would not balk."

Usagi wondered about 'her' journey: "But this is Mamoru's journey."

Chiral merely nodded at first, but said, "He wants to be healed on this journey, yes, and clearly he needs that. But this is, quite literally, _your_ journey."

It would be long afterwards before Usagi would return to free Chiral from his duties here, but in the present, she remembered that Chiral had been honest with her. Cryptic, but honest. She smiled and said, "I'll be back, Chiral."

The doomed ferryman watched her join her anxious friends, and actually hoped that she would keep that promise one day.

.

As they made their way on foot to their next stop, to some _oracle_ place that creeped her out, Usagi couldn't get her mind off of Hotaru.

Mamoru had steered her away from the others, ostensibly to comfort her in her anxiety, but really because he needed a few moments of normality, some kind of joy, after so long a day on this journey. "Usako," he said, grasping her hand tenderly as they moved through Ammoudia, "I would like to spend a few moments alone with you. Why don't we get some ice cream?"

Usagi grasped his hand just as tightly, but was secretly fraught with worry about Hotaru. She let her boyfriend and future husband spin her around, knowing he was expecting a smile… and darn it she wanted to give him a smile because he was apparently sick and she loved him so much…! She looked into his eyes, smiled tightly, and blurted out, "It's just that I'm worried about Hotaru, Mamo-chan!" She begged, "Everyone else we've seen in visions were dead, and what if…? —Can't we try to call someone in Tokyo, just to make sure she's safe?"

Mamoru rolled his eyes, but kissed her on the tip of her cute nose. "No. Usako, these are weird visions we're having, but we can't carry them into our real lives. You know that Michiru and Haruka like their privacy. A paranoid call from us—"

"About Hotaru!" Usagi interrupted. "A girl I snatched from the jaws of death, if you'll recall! And, —I'm practically her godmother, Mamo-chan! I dragged her away from a sure death when nobody else believed!" She then smiled sweetly and said, "Haruka wouldn't mind if I called."

He sighed, then led her to the nearest fruit stand, as there were no actual ice cream stands in this particular port of call. He watched her well-developed body as he let her squirm around him and take the lead. His eyes darkened as he imagined making that shapely body his own—

She was looking into a wooden bin of various fruits, quite disappointed. Mamoru pulled her close and asked, "Hmm, fruit?"

And while his future wife ignored his offer, the other girls suddenly descended on them fitfully, claiming starvation.

Usagi just couldn't shake that terrible feeling though, and while the others were busy draining Mamoru's wallet, she ran up to a bystander and asked for a phone. She got shot down, probably due to the language barrier, and kept getting shot down, but finally, when she was sure the others weren't looking, she ran to a phone booth and placed a long-distance call to Michiru, reversed the charges, then quickly asked for Hotaru.

Michiru replied calmly that Hotaru was gone on a visit to the future to see the long-missing Chibiusa. And that yes, it wasn't allowed, but Hotaru had insisted she MUST go to Chibiusa, and Setsuna held a special place in her heart for the teen.

Helios was beside her, looking at her closely, when she sullenly hung up. She turned to him defeated and asked, "Helios? What do you know of Hotaru?"

Helios grimaced and turned to walk away, but she grabbed his arm and held fast: "Helios! _Please!_ She… she said you were my brother! She said everyone claimed you were my brother but she didn't believe it—!"

Mamoru ran upon them just then, yelling, "Usako! You shouldn't disappear like that in a strange country!"

Helios suddenly pushed Usagi into the nearest shop then dragged her though it quickly. Usagi initially squealed, but turned to keep up with the strange priest, who was finally acting like he was doing something besides standing around like a boring old tree on this 'journey' — and hopefully doing something about Hotaru! When she heard Mamoru calling her name, she looked behind her and saw him catching up to them, but she merely smiled back at him and let Helios lead her through a back door. When she turned back to face the priest, they were in Elysion. The minute she stepped foot on the soft grasses there, Helios finally turned to her and said, "I am not your brother, Princess."

"I know," Usagi replied breathlessly, shocked at their current situation. She looked around, wondering if maybe Helios had wanted to speak with her privately. Finally, she glared at him with determination and said, "But Hotaru said we claimed to be related —and don't say she wasn't real! Now, why would she say that?" Usagi swallowed, then asked the now-more-pertinent question, "—And _why are we here?_ Mamoru was following us." She tried to look behind her for Mamoru, but there was nothing but trees and some kind of tree nymphs floating in the air.

"Yes, and I need to be back to him. I now know that he's in the gravest danger, and that this journey was necessary," Helios said. "But you have another path to follow, Princess." He knew his breath was hitched right now, not as calm as he liked, but what could the girl expect when she'd just confirmed his worst fears.

"You're not leaving me here! I want to be with Mamoru!" Usagi whined, glaring at Helios. "How could you separate us like this!"

"I didn't _separate_ you; you were never supposed to be together!" Helios replied, all too sharply. —And stupidly. He quickly added, "You _can_ be together, of course, but not until you finish your journey. _Journeys,_" he emphasized. "Separately."

But Usagi was stuck on his first statement. "Wait a minute! Did you say we weren't _supposed_ to be together?" Usagi stammered, backing away from the horned beast, about to cry. _"—Helios!_ Is… is _that_ why he's sick?" She started pacing. "Maybe I'd been right to stay away from him so long!" She spun on the priest: "—But we have a future together, Helios! Chibiusa!"

"And keep that in mind!" Helios answered. He stopped her pacing and grabbed her by her shoulders to shake some sense into her: "If you remember nothing else, Princess, remember _**him**_, and your inextricable bond with him. You have a difficult journey ahead of you—"

"**No!**" Usagi insisted. "I'm scared, Helios! Take me back to Mamoru! **NOW!**"

"I really can't, but the difficulty is probably not what you're thinking," Helios said. "The physical part will be easy for you; you won't be in any danger." He smiled weakly at her: "You merely have to _remember_, Serenity." He closed his eyes in silent prayer; if he told her the trouble of Mamoru's journey, if she found out now, she'd tear entire worlds apart. So instead he said, "TRUST me."

Usagi clamped her mouth shut, watching the strange priest closely. He'd used her future name; Chibiusa's mother's name. Her mother's name. She stammered out finally, "Hotaru said that Serenity was your sister, Helios, and I'm— I'm really getting _grossed out_ right now!" Her future daughter was supposed to marry this guy, but Helios might be Chibiusa's uncle! "If you want me to trust you, tell me the truth about that."

"Serenity," Helios said quietly, shaking his head, "I already told you. Now I've got to return to Ammoudia; but this is where YOUR journey begins. And of that, I have little information. What I do have for you is here, at the altar, where it's always been."

.

* * *

><p>.<p>

**She is made swift, so frequent come who claim**  
><strong> Succession in her favors. This is she,<strong>  
><strong> So execrated even by those whose debt<strong>  
><strong> To her is rather praise: they wrongfully<strong>  
><strong> With blame requite her, and with evil word;<strong>  
><strong> But she is blessed, and for that recks not:<strong>  
><strong> Amidst the other primal beings glad<strong>  
><strong> Rolls on her sphere, and in her bliss exults.<strong> —Dante, Inferno, Canto VII, _regarding Fortune_


	9. Dix

**an unsatisfying tale of separation. **

.

chapter 9.

Long after Helios was gone, and Usagi had stopped screaming and crying, she finally made her way over to the altar, then haphazardly shuffled through some papers there. She looked at where she'd last seen Helios, then yelled, "THANKS, HELIOS! A language I can't read!" And she didn't mean kanji; it was all in a script she'd never seen before.

"I can help."

Usagi turned around, completely terrified of the soft, feminine voice she'd heard. But she saw nobody, not even those women Helios had tending the altar.

And then the voice spoke again: "I'm the light; up here! My name is Eos. I am the sister of Helios."

Usagi's heart leaped in her body… might this be _her_ sister, too? Or _aunt_? —Unlike stupid Helios, this one actually sounded… happy! Even BUBBLY! Hotaru's words were in her mind again, and Usagi wondered if there might possibly be a way she was a sister to Helios and this voice…?

"I am not your sister," the light of Elysion said.

But when Usagi's head dropped, Eos added, "We grew up together though!"

"What," Usagi said flatly. That was even worse than being blood relatives, who could be separated and never know each other. Because Usagi remembered a lot of her Silver Millennium days, and had even since visited the Moon on occasion for the tranquility there. And yes, to see if she could discover who her dad had been in the Silver Millennium. If her mother could appear to her, then maybe her father might, she'd reasoned…

But she did NOT remember ever having met Helios, much less this _light_ person, before this century.

.

_**The Quest for Usagi**_

Helios returned to Mamoru and a figurative group of Harpies. He approached them slowly, but Mamoru ran at him with fury and threw him to the ground: "Where IS she, Helios? I'm not playing this stupid 'journey' game any longer! Dammit I JUST got her back! She wouldn't talk to me for YEARS!"

And after Makoto and Ami pulled the prince away, Helios sat up, sighed, and said, "We shall meet her soon; her journey sidetracks here. But yours continues on." At an angry Rei's face, he pointed beyond the group and said, "We have a small trek to get to an ancient site of ruins that I'm sure all of you will find interesting."

"Where's Usagi, Helios?" Mamoru demanded, manhandling the priest again. He tried shoving Rei off of him, then stared Helios down and said, "We're not going anywhere without her!"

"I agree!" Makoto chimed in just as angrily, followed up by Rei, Ami, and Minako.

It took Helios quite some time to calm them down without telling them any real information; he insisted that the Moon Princess couldn't take the same path as they did, but that regardless of what else happened, she would meet them after the oracle. It would be better if their journey to the oracle were successful, though.

Luna had kept her peace, hanging back with the thoughtful Minako and Artemis while the rest tried physical violence, but this 'Moon Princess path' didn't sound right to her.

Mamoru was red-faced with fury, but after searching the city and realizing that Usagi _just__ wasn't there_, he grabbed Helios again and said, "I don't like this! You're supposed to have my back, but you tricked us!"

"You never would have let her go, and she's been destined to do this for a long time, Endymion," Helios responded. '_Forever_.' He held up under the somehow even worse gaze of Minako and those cats, but finally they were off, after he repeated the promise of seeing Usagi after visiting the oracle.

_**A Side Trip**_

…although they were all hissing angrily with conspiracies anew as they filed out. Helios ignored their anger and, when given half a chance, pulled one of them away.

Ami was surprised, but when she inquired, Helios said, "You must return to the river Acheron, I'm afraid."

"But I had that _vision_ there," Ami said nervously. "And I didn't like it, Helios; it's like I swam through something I can't scrape from my body! I still feel bogged down!"

Helios nodded: "That vision involved your calling; you'll never 'scrape' it from yourself. You needed to continue on that ferry to find your destiny, but I didn't want to further upset the Princess, so I allowed us to continue this far, planning to send you back at our earliest convenience."

Ami liked the sound of those magnificent books, and their knowledge, being her destiny! But she was a Senshi first and foremost. "Would I be with Usagi?" Ami asked.

Helios shook his head slightly, but said, "You'll see her sooner than the rest of us, but first you have something to do at the river. You must go back."

As Ami hesitated, watching her friends go on towards the oracle ruins, she looked behind her at the route they'd come. And shivered. She asked Helios plainly: "If I don't go back, I don't get rid of this slimy muck I feel hanging over me?"

Helios merely nodded. "You've been marked by destiny; you are correct. You'll know your role by the time you return here."

.

_**The Entrance of Dix**_

Mamoru had dashed to the _Nekromanteio_, the ruins Helios had pointed out, and looked for Usagi everywhere. By the time the others had gotten there, he angrily pointed out the groups of tourists and yelled, "**No Usagi,** Helios! Where is she?"

Luna turned to run back to the little town and find her charge, but Helios swiftly picked her up, then dutifully ignored Artemis' gnawing at his heels.

Luna hissed at the man; this was _Moon_ business, _Senshi business!_ He had no right! "I need to find Usagi!" she growled loudly. "Set me DOWN!"

Minako was in total agreement: "Usagi, _and Ami!_ —Helios, I understand that this is an important journey for Mamoru, and maybe even for all of us—"

"For the planet," Helios corrected.

"Okay," Minako allowed. "—But I need to be there for the Moon Princess! And Ami does, too!"

"You are doing what the Princess would want," Helios smiled softly, but with a sternness, at the blossoming blonde teen. "And the best way to serve her now is to consult the Oracle here."

"_**What?**_" Makoto said, stepping toward the priest. "We _**all**_ have to talk to some damned Oracle, Helios? _**EACH of us?**_ Oh no… This is Mamoru's journey!" —AND, there was NO WAY Makoto would ever let Chibiusa go near this pompous creep, much less _marry_ him!

Helios nodded: "I understand you're concerned, but believe me, once you consult the Oracle, you'll learn that I have both the Princess' interests as well as your own at heart. If you want Endymion to be healed, we _must_ go forward, not back. And believe me, the Princess is well on her way; you will meet with her soon. But you all must go to the Oracle first. —_even you_, Luna and Artemis!" Helios finally shook the white cat from his leg.

Mamoru was near tears in his frustration, but also near giving up. "You don't understand, Helios." He wiped his face and said, "Last time this happened, when a 'mysterious force' told me to let her go, she was nearly raped! She was hurt, and it took her years to forgive me for it!"

"Mamoru," Rei said sadly, because she, too, had heeded old King Endymion's words and let Usagi be taken by Dimande. And the situation did feel eerily the same. "Last time we had a choice. But now? What else can we do?"

"Well last time, we should have kicked Chibiusa out the door!" Makoto said, with both anger and shame. There was a guilt that ran deep when the Princess you were tasked to protect was hurt while under your protection; the guilt had nearly eaten them alive over the years. They might have blamed Mamoru; and they did curse King Endymion; but ultimately it was their own fault and the guilt had stayed with them. They'd ignored the guilt only to be able to continue to do their best for the Princess and the whole Earth's future.

And had determined to never make the same mistake again. Makoto whipped out her communicator and pressed the Moon button, over and over—

"Stop this!" Helios insisted. Their whole group was starting to get looks from the tourists. And also, "Your future King Endymion was led by his emotions; by some future knowledge he _thought_ he understood. He abused your trust in him, and yes, the Princess was hurt. But her pain was more from the deception of the future King Endymion than anything that garishly-dressed fool Dimande had done to her."

"So why don't you just TELL us what we're here for?" Mamoru yelled. "TELL us where Usagi is! No more mysteries, Helios!"

Helios held up a finger: "I just absolved you of _your_ role in the Princess' troubles; told you to put the blame on a confused old man who lives very far in the future, who you'll _**never**_ see again. And yet your response is just more demands—"

"We can't let it happen again, Helios," Minako said softly.

"And that's the difference here," Helios said, then looked at Endymion. "In Crystal Tokyo, you had your Princess with you, and let King Endymion give her to the Black Moon Clan. Now, the Princess is off on her own quest, as is Mercury—"

"You TOOK her!" Mamoru cried angrily.

"No, Endymion; she came with me willingly — you saw her! — to discover the fate of Hotaru!"

"You took advantage of her concern for a girl who couldn't possibly be here!" Rei argued.

"She never would have run from me if you hadn't teased her with knowledge of Hotaru!" Mamoru added.

Helios said, "_As I said before_, her path diverges greatly from yours. For a time. But I did NOT trick anybody into letting her go. I WAS able to accommodate her worries about the Senshi of Saturn." He glared at all the angry Senshi, Endymion, and the snarled-up cats, then said, "The ONLY similarity to your Crystal Tokyo fiasco is that both times, the Princess was separated from you. The first time, by your own hand, and with deceit. But this time, you have not removed her from the group; you have not deceived her. She is exactly where she needs to be, as are you all. —And I might warn you, if you _don't_ take these few minutes to seek the Oracle, you may never see the Princess again."

While Makoto and Rei had found those to be warring words, Mamoru stilled them with a hand on each of their shoulders. "He's taken Usagi, and Ami; we have to follow through with this."

.

_**The Guidance of Eos**_

Usagi kept still, but asked, "So Endymion wanted to marry me, and this Senshi of Earth — Gaia — killed herself so he could?"

Eos sighed. How many times could they go over this? "No, Serenity! Listen, there were no Senshi then; not really. Gaia embodied the planet, and she was very close with you. With your mother. And …Gaia _helped_ her. In order to help the Earth."

"But Gaia isn't related to you," Usagi said skeptically.

"She _thought_ she was," Eos said lightly, then giggled. "She'd called herself the mother of the Titans; and we all truly loved her dearly," Eos said. "But I'm afraid Gaia more 'used' us than 'birthed' us." Eos paused a moment, then reminded Serenity, "Things now aren't as they used to be! And I'm afraid many mortals made us Titans to be Gaia-centric, as if we were attached to a particular city or nation."

"Us," Usagi noted. "You …and Helios? Or your mother and father?"

"All the Titans," Eos said in a friendly tone. "There were many of us, and the greatest of us gravitated here to Earth, at Gaia's insistence. Some hadn't believed, but were later attracted to this solar system because _you_ were here; and together with the Earth, you helped make this section of the galaxy the most powerful of all! We all loved the Earth and Moon system very much! —even after we were overthrown by the seed of Cronus."

"The.. _who_?" Usagi asked.

Eos said, "The children of Cronus. You know, Zeus? Or _Jupiter_."

Usagi paced back and forth on the grounds of Elysion. She turned and looked up, then asked, "But you don't mean _my friend_ Makoto… Sailor Jupiter." It _so_ wasn't a question. The news of sweet Hotaru being some freaky billions-of-years-old guy named 'Cronus' hadn't set well with Usagi, …and she still wasn't sure she believed it. But she was **not** going to hear that Rei was really a filthy war god, or that Makoto was the evil Zeus!

Eos said, "I'm not helping you much, I'm afraid. —But no, the Senshi are of the new order; they're more defensive in nature than their forebears ever were."

"Okay good," Usagi said. They'd gone over and over how Hotaru was, apparently, the very embodiment of this Cronus, the Titan leader, just as Hotaru had claimed to be earlier today. And this Cronus had supposedly overthrown her own father in a most vile way, then ate up her own kids. And according to Eos, Hotaru now moved between Hell and Earth as Sailor Saturn …because Usagi called her and needed her! —a thing Usagi was SURE was an error, because she hadn't 'called' anybody!

"I'm sure you are finding this information …unsettling, Serenity. But I have to ask, are you purposefully avoiding asking the most obvious question?" Eos asked softly.

Usagi nearly cried: "I'm not sure I want to ask _any_ more questions!"

Eos smiled, brightening Elysion slightly as she did so. "You were always like this! Enjoying happy, fun things, and going out of your way to avoid anything unseemly!" Eos continued smiling as the young maiden pinked with embarrassment, but then Eos grew a little more serious. "Serenity, you have to ask who YOU are! Where you came from! Why Gaia needed to hide you amongst the children of Hyperion!"

Usagi of course _now_ understood why Cronus would need to 'hide'… Biting back nervous tears, Usagi asked: "My mother didn't eat her other children, did she?"

Eos went completely blank. She struggled for a polite response, and finally said, "We don't know, Serenity, although I highly doubt it. Cronus was protected by Gaia for an entirely different reason, and some wouldn't call that 'protection' at all. But you, you were Gaia's closest friend, and raised almost instantly to the most powerful regent of the time! _A__ll_ we know is that we thought of you as our close-sister, and we didn't know better until the day Gaia gave her life and her powers to Endymion."

"Okay," Usagi said. "And WHY did Gaia do such a thing?"

Eos said, "I suspect it was to keep you here."

Usagi felt confused: "What! What do you mean, Eos?" _Where else would she go?_

"You were your mother's daughter, Serenity. Truly immortal," Eos stressed. "Your mother had made it so you could feel as mortal as possible; maybe you believed yourself so," Eos said carefully. Because she really didn't know any better. "—But Endymion was _truly_ mortal; and while you'd fallen in love with him as well, he feared that you wouldn't remain interested in him after he aged, so he asked to have immortality. There was a price—"

"But you said Zeus granted him immortality!" Usagi said, not understanding. "That the price was he'd sleep by day until I could visit him at night…" She'd certainly heard _those_ myths before, but had always discounted them until tonight. "NONE of which I remember, by the way, but if Zeus granted him immortality, why did Gaia need to do the same?"

Eos said, "Endymion might have had immortality, of a sort —IF Zeus could be trusted to not find a loophole. Gaia didn't trust the new order — the Olympians. But moreover, even with immortality, Endymion couldn't have walked by day with you! Gaia considered Zeus' immortality more of a curse than a gift—"

"That's what it sounded like to me, too!" Usagi said, glad to hear that someone, even an old dead deity, thought the same way she did!

"What Gaia did was to give Endymion …_the planet_, Serenity. And you were in love with Endymion," Eos smiled. "An unbreakable bond. And with the new threat coming, our own Sun turning on us so…"

"Metallia," Usagi supplied, happy to remember something that this Eos was speaking about.

Eos brightened a bit: "Yes; there was danger. And truly, after Metallia, everything DID change! At that time, the Olympians were cast into Tartarus, and we Titans were moved en masse here, to Elysion, with Helios." Eos sighed and smiled: "The Senshi were to be re-awakened in the future to battle this evil."

"Now I'm with you!" Usagi said happily. But then fretted. "—only Hotaru said she and I weren't really Senshi."

"You are Senshi, in a sense," Eos said. "Maybe not the way the others are… but you can't focus on that now, Serenity. Because Helios is sure that danger is afoot again; Cronus appearing to you as he did on the Healing Journey sealed it for Helios, as that never would have happened to you without the very greatest of necessity." Eos dimmed and said, "Serenity, you HAVE to remember; to remember your origins. It's possible the truth of it died with Gaia." —_if Gaia even knew the truth_, Eos thought.

Eos paused to let Serenity digest that, then said, "Serenity, you have to know why Gaia took you, and hid you amongst my kinsmen. And why an immortal as yourself wouldn't remember. You have to discover who you are! Come out of hiding, so to speak, that we might save the Earth!"

Usagi sighed and wept. She KNEW who she was! She KNEW who her mother was! She knew all of this just fine until Helios' _journey_. "Why does any of this matter for Mamoru's health?"

Eos was dimming. "Serenity, I love you as a sister, and as a powerful force in this planetary system… but I'm afraid I've done little to help you on your quest, and it grows late. Maybe these myths and genealogies aren't what you need to find out how you can help your loved ones."

"So there's no hope?" Usagi asked.

With mock happiness, Eos said, "You've always taken your own path, Serenity. My suggestion is that you return to your home, _your real home__, _and try to discover the answers for yourself there."

Usagi asked, "But if my mother grew up with you well before she was installed as the Moon Queen, where is my _real home_? How would I get there?"

"I simply don't know. —But I'd suggest that your mother would." Eos was almost dark now, her light barely escaping the sky of Elysion. Then Eos dimmed to black, leaving Serenity only in the light by the altar.

.

* * *

><p>.<p>

**She with foresight planned** —Dante, Inferno, Canto VII, _regarding Fortune_

.


	10. The Sixth Circle

**an unsatisfying tale of separation. **

.

chapter 10.

_**Entering Dix — The Sixth Circle**_

"Well, THIS is stupid," Makoto thought as she knelt down in the strange ruins. They'd each been separated to different areas of the ancient site, but apparently Makoto would be the first to enter the actual building.

"Just go," Helios whispered. "—and try to keep an open mind; you girls have been through several strange things, including a trip to the 30th Century. You've even been through death, more than once. Stay focused on your desire to help the Princess, who ultimately wants to help Endymion and the planet."

And with that, Makoto was shoved into the building. She shivered, thinking how nasty these old ruins were. She whispered to herself, "I have no idea what I'm supposed to be doing here…"

And then she saw a strange gate several steps ahead.

She walked towards the gate, and suddenly felt pulled into another dimension, as if grabbed by the waist as her head and feet dangled behind her in a great wind. And just as suddenly, she was back on her feet, but now the entire area around her was dark. She tried to regain her orientation, and realized that she could make out walls and windows —of a building that could hardly be considered 'ruins'. She was _somewhere_ _else_.

She swallowed, but continued gingerly to the gate — now a much larger, deeper gate with strange writings over it that seemed to glow in neon shades of blue. And far beyond this gate, through it, she saw thee familiar figures: three Senshi! As as she stared, she realized that one was herself! Chatting idly with another! "Oh crap," she choked, backing up.

But a firm hand landed on her shoulder; she turned quickly and saw "—Setsuna?"

The woman wasn't in a Sailor fuku — she was draped in a black shawl of old, dirty wool —but it was surely her!

"I am Hades," the fallen god said sternly to _yet another_ version of her eternal brother, now in the form of a woman. He idly wondered if this one could possibly be _the_ one, …or another version of the one already here, who at times tried to escape. "How are you here?" he asked firmly.

Makoto, purely freaked, jumped away from the wraith-like Setsuna and yelled, "Damn! Usagi said she'd seen Hotaru but she wasn't Hotaru and talked about hiding from things but …are you one of _those_? A spirit like Hotaru was?"

Hades knew nothing of any 'Hotaru'; he looked at his father's offspring, and then pointed his staff at the three figures beyond, guarding the real gate to the Sixth Level: "You're acting unlike yourself; weak, and weepy. I assume you've made yet another child and earned the fury of our sister?"

"Nnnnnnuh?" Makoto freaked again, taking another step back. "I'm a virgin!"

"You don't belong here," Hades announced angrily, now with new understanding that this was not, in any form, _Zeus_. "Tell how you passed the Acheron!"

FINALLY, a name Makoto knew! "_Yes!_ Yes, this ..this _droid_ we knew from the future, Chiral, ferried us all over the Acheron so that we could help a friend! But then we got off at Ammoudia, and Usagi _disappeared_, and then so did Ami…" She stopped her rambling and said firmly, "Helios said we had to come speak to some _Oracle_!"

Hades took a step towards the young woman and reached for her face, forcing the girl's memories to flood into Hades' mind —and the guardian of the underworld had to stifle a laugh. Finally, Hades pointed to the first gate again, and said, "Go; listen to Helios!" —_that schmuck_, Hades thought to himself.

Makoto ran to the entrance gate with the creepy blue lettering and jumped through without slowing, and continued running towards the three figures ahead. She found herself winded, and realized the gravity was much greater here. _Where__ver_ she was. And, while bent over to catch her breath, hands on her knees, she finally saw the three Senshi ghosts up close: Sailor Neptune was draped over a doppelganger _of herself—Sailor Jupiter!_ And Setsuna was again there in the shadows now, but dressed as Sailor Pluto this time, standing opposite of the other two. And Pluto was glaring… much like the Setsuna everyone knew and loved.

Confused, she glanced behind her to see if she could find the creepy Setsuna dressed in black, but the gate she'd entered through was gone. She inwardly screamed, but kept her cool — she'd been through creepy lairs like this one! And there was no going back now! Then she set her focus on her doppelganger and asked the first thing that come to mind: "What are we doing here, and aren't you scared Haruka will get jealous?"

Zeus laughed at the intruder, the weak figure of himself in mortal attire of whom he'd heard _far_ too much! The one who was to be bigger and better; an improved version of himself! Laughing raucously, he stepped away from Poseidon and towards this little girl, then stretched his arm out to let the girl behold his magnificent armor! He then said, "What are you compared to ME?"

Makoto saw herself step forward, a mirror image of herself, but one with a somehow-even-worse attitude! "Great," she whispered, "What, is this my future?" —and then, understanding more about Ami's earlier explanation of Dante's Inferno, she realized that they hadn't gotten off the river Acheron at all, nor had they avoided entering the deep circles of Hell; this WAS Hell! And this 'oracle building'? No, they'd entered that evil building Dix!

But she was Sailor Jupiter; there was NO WAY she'd turn back, not if her Princess needed her!

…and then the figure she'd seen as herself morphed into a figure of a warrior. She nearly fell down as his immense figure grew, along with the whole rumbling building, and the other two Senshi morphed as horribly as her doppelganger. —Especially the one who'd been Setsuna, who was now a giant, ugly man holding the leash of a fierce three-headed dog that was looking at her like she were dinner!

As she fell backwards, she realized this wasn't her future! It was the _past_… the Greek gods she'd read about. Ami hadn't mentioned _that_!

She immediately transformed into Sailor Jupiter, then faced her namesake. Zeus. "So you ended up in Hell!" she taunted, with much more bravado than she felt. This was like facing Galaxia alone. But three of them. —And she was asking after their fates?

Zeus shrugged: "It's not so bad."

Poseidon, now the large, bulky figure of the ancient ocean god with a sharp trident in hand, noted curiously, "You have retained no memories."

"Not a one!" Jupiter said, but with a smile; she was much happier to be a Senshi than one of these creeps. "So what, do we fight now? Because I think you'd be surprised by my upgrade!" She smiled widely, knowing she was talking shit, but not quite able to help herself; it was a defense mechanism. She prepared to show these has-beens a little Jupiter Oak Evolution—!

And immediately, Sailor Mars was by her side, grabbing onto her for dear life! Mars whispered, "I suppose you didn't move forward fast enough?"

Jupiter, very happy to see her real fellow Senshi, looked back at the three Greeks and told Mars, "I think we're supposed to get through them; they took me by surprise."

"_HOW?_" Mars asked incredulously, looking up at the three bulky giants from Hell.

Zeus suddenly moved aside and sneered, "Jupiter may pass," and motioned for her pass.

"For real?" Sailor Jupiter asked, but at the urging of Mars, didn't ask any further questions — she made a running leap through Zeus and Hades' hellhound, right into the gate they guarded to what must be, if her count was right, the 7th Circle of Hell. She hoped Mars was quick on her tail.

.

But when Mars followed, Zeus stopped her and shoved her back towards Hades like she was a toy mouse.

Mars yelled for Jupiter as the hellhounds growled at her in an attacking posture —but the gate had slammed shut, and Poseidon and Zeus were rounding on the fire priestess.

"So _you're_ mimicking my useless wreck of a son?" Zeus laughed.

"I mimic nobody!" Mars squeaked out, but then stood straight up and forced Hades to back up a step. She breathed relief when Hades jerked the leash of the hellhound and made it stand down. —FAR away from Mars.

Poseidon seemed particularly not-fond of her, and Mars was particularly not fond of Hades, so she re-focused her energies back on Zeus. She yelled with the voice of a gladiator (she hoped): "What do I need to do to save Usagi and help Mamoru?" —And tried hard not to cry.

Zeus glared at her quietly, not knowing if she were simply acting the cool customer, or if there'd really been a change in her demeanor. "I don't know your Usagi or your Mamoru; I'm quite sure I don't know **you**! You refused the sword granted to you for this quest… no offspring of mine would have forfeited such a gift!"

Poseidon sneered, "—you should have grasped the sword and used it mercilessly on any who crossed your path!"

"Slashed your way into Tartarus!" Zeus agreed, eyes growing angrily at the sight of the tiny fairy before him.

But Hades, from behind, snarled, "The _Mamoru_ of whom she speaks is the same Endymion to whom you granted immortality."

Zeus looked at Mars, who now had recognition on her face, then he said with horror: "You're after the Moon Goddess' fate? _HERE?_"

"Um… yeah!" Mars said, breathing more easily again. "Helios sent us—"

"_Helios?_" laughed Poseidon, who was now taking on the shape of a woman much more familiar to Mars… Sailor Neptune. Neptune bent over Zeus' arm and languidly continued, "Last I heard _you_ were trying to **slay** that rat!"

"This one refused the sword," Zeus laughed, himself changing into the Senshi who'd just run through the 7th gate. And now he sneered, "Who has ever heard of a **war god** refusing the sword?"

A completely confounded Mars could only stare open-jawed at the three who had now transformed into some of her own group of Senshi: Sailors Neptune, Jupiter, and Pluto! They were a lot less formidable in those forms, and while she was itching to ask them further questions about their strange sayings, Usagi was at the front of her mind. She saw that the gate had opened again, and without asking, made a mad dash through it head-first.

After she tumbled head-over-heels through the gate, she noted that her friend Sailor Jupiter was nowhere to be seen in the vast array of sub-rings in this Seventh Circle. '_This is going to take forever!_' she complained to herself, but then stood up and again yelled for Jupiter.

.

_**Calling**_

Ami had approached Chiral with caution; he'd been waiting for her. She smiled nervously and said, "I'm, um…"

"Supposed to be here," Chiral said with boredom, then stepped aside to let her board the ferry again.

As he busied himself with undocking the ferry, Ami walked around the watercraft nervously. "Do you know where I'm supposed to be going?"

Chiral ignored her until the boat was off again, then steered it back into the open mouth of the Acheron, and on towards the frightening building they'd just passed en route to Ammoudia. Ami again said, "Excuse me, Sir? Um, yes… I thought we weren't supposed to be going there! To Ali Pasha's Castle?" Or, as she'd highly suspected, Dix — the gates of Hell! She considered jumping overboard, but steeled herself and approached Chiral again: "Excuse me! I'm talking to you!"

Chiral's ferry picked up considerable speed, and they were headed straight towards the castle whose features seemed to get worse the closer they got. Ami was hanging onto Chiral by the time she realized they were going to smash into the Castle: "PLEASE! You're going to KILL—"

Her breath caught as the ferry flew right through the 'palace'; instantly she was freezing and had wished she'd thought to grab her overnight bag from Helios so she could get a sweater.

"You get used to it," Chiral said, heading straight through the murky waters within the castle walls. And upon seeing the drop ahead, he warned, "You might want to hang on here; it starts out a little bumpy."

.

_**Spooky Old Palaces**_

She didn't know what she was doing here. Eternal Sailor Moon had been back to the Moon several times in the past few years, whenever she'd felt out-of-sorts, or whenever Luna over-crowded her. When her Senshi had pressured her to reunite with Mamoru for the good of the world, or when Chibiusa would complain that Usagi was simply delaying the inevitable and making everybody miserable in the meantime.

The moon was her tranquility.

But she'd never really _investigated_ anything here. Not the way Ami might. She found the ruins with ease, and went into the somehow-preserved underground dungeons of the ancient palace, where many halls of books and other boring things were so deservedly buried. She found a lantern in the freezing halls and lit it magically, then saw a lot of that strange script that she'd seen in Elysion. Illegible to her, but wow, would Ami have a field day HERE! She chuckled thinking about Ami's work at the beautiful blue caves earlier that day, and wondered if Ami had made any headway with that.

As she moved through the underground corridors lined with shelves of ancient books, feeling completely alone and devoid of purpose, she whimpered to herself, "Oh, Ami; why can't you be here now. I am useless here."

Indeed, she'd often found that the other Senshi, regardless of what Hotaru had told her today, were so much more powerful, capable! then she could ever hope to be. She was just a girl with a wand, and a desire to live, and a distaste for injustice. A girl like any other. But Rei? She could read the future, and sense things; she could make those spells! Venus was powerful and kind; an ingenious leader, and lots of fun. Jupiter was a perfect fighter, and a great homemaker… everything a guy could want in a woman. A fierce Senshi. And Ami? Was there any question there? She looked at the hall of annals and whispered, "Why me?"

She let go of her transformation and found a seat in the dark halls, wondering if her Mama would appear to her again. —but then again, there were no old computer parts here; just books. She sat and thought of Mamoru and the others, on some brave voyage for which Helios had all but said she couldn't be part of, and, like dealing with a child, had taken her to Eos for babysitting and fairy tales.

Pouting, she wondered how long she should wait…

Her body suddenly seized with fright, then she felt a disturbance in the air. This was the friggin MOON! _NOBODY_ came here! …well, besides Luna, who was otherwise occupied at the present…

Usagi stood quietly, but then turned towards the outer halls and yelled out, "Hello? Anybody there?" —then immediately thought better of it. That was the very thing she screamed at horror movie characters NOT to do when hearing a strange noise in their homes! "_I'm su__ch an idiot!"_ she whispered, putting out the light and smashing herself as close to the shelves as she could while keeping an eye out.

At the next crashing sound, Usagi realized she never should have de-transformed! Near tears, she pulled her scepter out of the subspace pocket and held it high above her head: "Moon Eternal… MAKEUP!"

She froze — nothing had happened! Terrible memories of her battle against Mistress 9 came flooding back to her… she struck a better pose, a more confident pose, and tried it again: "Moon Eternal… MAKE UP!"

She dropped the scepter and backed away from it; it wasn't working! She swallowed and turned to run, then heard another crash behind her. It was getting closer, and she was in the underground of her Mother's ancient Moon Palace; RUINS of the ancient Palace, that is. And all alone; with only some _spirit_ from Elysion even knowing her whereabouts. She ran as hard as she could down the corridor, wondering if since the Shitennou had died here, that maybe they could haunt her here!

"Usagi!"

.

She nearly twisted her ankle as she spun around; running that fast and then trying to stop had never been her forte. As she fell awkwardly to the ground, she twisted around and saw the face that matched the voice: Sailor Mercury! "Ami! How'd you GET here?"

She was still shivering so hard she thought she'd throw up, but Mercury stepped up to her and said, "Sorry, Usa-chan; still trying to get my sea legs!" Mercury looked around and said, "I never knew about this place!"

"Yeah I know, I just found it last year, but it was really creepy so I stayed away from it. It's nothing but books." Usagi glanced down at Ami's "legs" she was trying to get used to, and saw that little gold wings had sprung up on her ankles! "_Ami! …__ How'd you get THOSE?_" She jumped up, twisted ankle long forgotten, then launched herself at her studious friend for a hug, knocking them both against a dust-covered bookshelf. "This must be an upgrade to your Eternal transformation!"

"Not exactly," Mercury smiled, standing to dust her brand-spanking new fuku off and looking at all the books. "—Usa-chan, do you know what this place is? How long have you known about it!" …and she started gently dusting off the giant tomes, eyes wide with amazement.

Usagi said, "I found it once when I came up here for a visit…" She looked up at the high ceilings lined with nothing but books and some covered paintings. "Started digging around the old Palace site. I thought I'd really found something great, but …it was just _books_!" she sighed, frustrated.

"Usagi," Mercury said suddenly, as if just remembering her mission. She grabbed her friend's shoulders and looked at her earnestly. "I thought you were in trouble! Is everything okay up here?"

Usagi held herself timidly and said, "Helios took me to Elysion, and his sister said I needed to come here and try to find out why… well, it's a long story," Usagi shrugged, weeping. "It sounds too stupid to repeat."

"No, Usa; Helios took me as well!" Mercury said, then turned and looked at the great shelves of books all around them, and was immediately reminded of her vision on the Acheron from a few hours ago. "Just… —WOW! I hope everyone else is having their visions come true like this!"

"This was your vision?" Usagi asked incredulously, stepping back as if from a daimon. _Stupid books?_

But then Usagi remembered _her_ vision… her terrible, terrible vision of Hotaru, hiding from someone in a creepy forest in Hell. And while she'd _thought_ it had been real, after hearing Eos' explanation of Cronus and Sailor Saturn, Usagi's only hope was that seeing Hotaru had been JUST a vision. Because otherwise, her claim as the Moon Princess was in serious danger… and her whole life might be a lie. And as for her other friends, and Mamoru….

"Usa, you're hyperventilating," Mercury said urgently, holding Usa steady.

Usagi asked, "Ami, where are the others? —is Mamoru okay?"

"They're all fine," Mercury said, backing away from Usagi and feeling the spines of the ancient texts. These books were making her blood race; she grew dizzy with desire. "When I left them, Helios was taking them to the Oracle." She turned away from the tempting texts and added, "Everyone was very upset with Helios for that, but trust me, Usa, Helios knows what he's doing." Mercury then pulled out a particularly giant book and let it drop to the ground, where she kneeled over to open it. "This is a **history**, Usa! It must be thousands of years old!"

"What do you mean, _Helios knows what he's doing?"_ Usagi asked, affronted by the notion. "Ami, he KIDNAPPED me!"

"Again, he took me, too, Usa-chan," Mercury said patiently, standing and looking for another book. She found a few promising-looking books and started climbing the shelves. "It's a journey, Usa; a very important one. And I'd BET...," she struggled with the book of maps. Usagi helped her get it down, and then Mercury nodded a thanks. "I bet we _all_ had our own separate paths to take. Remember, it's all to help Mamoru get better."

Usagi sighed and said sadly, "I was told that to help Mamoru, I have to know my origins. But that the last person who might have known them had …_died_, or given up her essence." She rolled her eyes, thinking 'whatever'. She bit her lip nervously and continued, "So there's only me, Ami, and I'm all alone up here!" Usagi rubbed her arms and remembered that an access to the Time Door was here, and she could potentially get to _some_ version of Sailor Pluto, but that didn't comfort her any. "I have no idea what I'm supposed to be doing, but I'm worried about all my friends."

"You're _not_ alone, silly! I'm here to help you now!" Mercury said, now carefully inspecting the girl she'd known as Tsukino Usagi, Sailor Moon. She inhaled nervously, but smiled and but pressed on. "And these books might just tell us what you need to know, so let's get to work!"

.


	11. The Seventh Circle

**an unsatisfying tale of separation. **

.

chapter 11.

_**The Unbelievers**_

Minako, Mamoru, Luna, and Artemis had all converged on Setsuna inside the entrance of this strange oracle building. Something was taking the other girls too long, and the way Helios had lined them up for a quick passage through the ruins had ended with quite the bottleneck.

For the millionth time, Luna insisted, "Look, it's not OUR fault that YOUR Oracle isn't functioning on time!"

Artemis agreed: "There should be a strict timetable!"

Minako sighed, "Just let us go!"

"No," Hades said. It was his misfortune to be stuck at the entrance of each gate of Tartarus, and therefore he knew there had been a bottleneck at the first inner gate. And even when that had cleared, Mars had taken her time, as well; the gates simply weren't freed up!

—Until that very second… Hades looked at Minako and said, "Okay, YOU may go, but only you." To the others, he said, "Would you like to take another tour down the Acheron? It changes every time!"

"No!" Mamoru said, but as he charged forth, he was blocked by Setsuna's stupid staff.

The cats, however, slipped by, and ended up with Sailor Venus at the first inner gate of the building. Artemis was appalled, and hissed with embarrassment, "I'm sure we didn't need a transformation for looking at _ruins_, Sailor Venus!"

Venus said, "There's another one of her," indicating Setsuna, and then she pointed to the three figures beyond the gate: freakin Zeus! Poseidon! And for the cherry on top, HADES! Angrily, she said, "Aaaand …_we're back in_ Hell."

Hades stepped fully into the gate that the cats might not rush past him into the Seventh Circle, and placed Cerberus at the gate, each of its heads growling and drooling. —these Senshi had no idea what kind of trouble he could get into for breaches such as this! He pointed his staff at the black cat and said, "Bad kitty!"

Venus, however, asked Hades, "Why are we here? We need to find the Moon Princess and she's surely not in Hell!"

"_**That's**_ what Helios meant when he said Usagi had to take a different route," Luna suggested.

"But this is all mythological!" Artemis said angrily. "Some kind of vision put upon us by Helios himself! Elysion was a big enough pill to swallow, but a poet's 'Inferno'? Come _on_, Luna!"

Hades had heard enough of Helios, but to understand just how much this had to do with she-who-should-not-be-mentioned, made him pale. Even more than usual. Of course, the black cat before him seemed to know of the problem: "That one should never approach Tartarus, —like, _ever_!"

Venus pondered, more to herself than Hades, "Then why are we _here_?"

Hades guffawed: "Probably because of Endymion's foolish contract with Zeus for …_her_. —The boy was a fool to ask such a thing of Zeus, and I daresay he'll find it was far too high a price to pay!" Hades sighed and added, "Unfortunately, that you're all amassing upon us now, seeking the 'Moon Princess', is a sign of the end of days." —Boy how he'd like to run down that damned Helios!

"We already had those," Artemis replied smartly, but was curious why Usagi wasn't being named here, or why this journey would, to Hades, signal an end of days.

But Luna was letting the memories of the legends come to the front of her mind. And yes, Endymion, as it was said, had offered himself up to Zeus so he might spend time with the immortal Princess! How had she _forgotten_ that important detail? _H__ad it ever really happened__, or was it a legend she just remembered at this juncture__?_ —She suddenly felt a need to go back to Mamoru; to protect him. But Hades tapped her with the bottom of his staff and said, "I imagine this is a quest which Endymion must make alone." Then he smiled at the terrified cat: "And you, Luna, have a quest of your own to make." Finally, Hades decided that these three SHOULD pass together. It would be more than fitting; and in fact, it was necessary.

.

_**The Twisty Seventh Circle**_

When it was finally his turn, over an hour later, Mamoru had run through the sixth gate easily, passing several ancient-looking brutes who were more interested in extolling their own virtues than trying to catch him. And now he alighted upon a trio of Senshi in this Seventh Circle of Dix — or Hell, as he'd quickly figured out upon seeing the representation of Hades — Sailor Pluto — at the gate of the "oracle". He knew now that Helios was saying that to get to Usagi, he'd have to get through Hell. And it greatly angered him! He didn't think he'd ever trust Helios with another thing again… and if Usagi were hurt? Helios might need to find employment outside of Elysion!

Presently, he saw Sailors Neptune, Jupiter, and Pluto at various levels of the large caverns before him, apparently staged there roundabout to prevent his passage …if he opted to follow the paths laid out before him. But he quickly opted to leap over the ledge instead of following the paths, and landed amid brush that was littered with skeletons of those who'd passed before him. He transformed into Tuxedo Kamen as large, human-faced birds came flying at him. He easily used his cane to stun them, then picked his way through the immense, thick forest, looking for the way up to the final level of this 'Seventh Circle'.

He was knocked flat on his back, but flipped over quickly to see a fierce-looking man-horse — a Centaur! — attacking him! He rolled quickly and took off through trees he was sure would block the evil beast. He wedged himself in so tightly, though, that he had to use his cane to break away branches and pass. And while he wanted to curse Helios, he suddenly felt the reality of this journey — that he wasn't as sprightly as he normally felt, and that if he were sick, he needed to pass through this circle, and the next, to have even a chance to protect the Earth and get back to Usagi.

"She'll never forgive you now!" Poseidon taunted from a precipice over Tuxedo Kamen. "Venus said you'd done this to Serenity before! Left her alone!"

Kamen couldn't respond —literally, he had a branch full of leaves in his mouth. He spit them out and continued on up through the steep incline to the next gate. He didn't want to linger any longer than necessary in this Seventh Circle. And he ultimately had to find Usagi! …even though he knew she couldn't be _here_! The girl had never done anything even questionable in her life; she hadn't even tried to kill Galaxia! So yes, he knew he had to make quick work of these next few Circles to get out of Hell and find Usagi…

And if he remembered his Dante well, he was approaching the blasphemers of Zeus. He bitterly chuckled, realizing that the Senshi he'd seen upon entering the Seventh Circle were likenesses of the three brothers who had overthrown the Titans in Greek mythology: Sailor Jupiter represented Zeus, Sailor Neptune represented Poseidon, and of course Sailor Pluto represented Hades. But then he paled momentarily when remembering just _who_ these deities had overthrown. _**Cronus**_, now known as Sailor Saturn, or _Hotaru_ — the very girl Usagi had seen and spoken with back on the River Acheron.

And he'd told her it was all a vision, and it probably was… but why had he dismissed it so easily, when it had obviously been so important to her? Even Helios claimed that he took Usagi willingly, to discover Hotaru's fate…

But instead of succumbing to his sudden horror — that Usagi might now be with the evil Cronus! — he sneered loudly to the three Greek brothers: "Guess things didn't work out for you so well after you killed off your father!"

They ignored him.

Kamen made quick work of the final brushy level of this evil Circle, using his cane like a scythe, and upon bursting through the last of the trees, he leaped to the final ring of the Seventh Circle, and saw the gate to the Eighth Circle… and Zeus! He was truly taken aback to see Zeus—no longer _Sailor Jupiter_, but the actual giant leader of the Olympians, Zeus! Where _the blasphemers_ were supposed to be! Tuxedo Kamen wielded his cane at the ancient and asked hoarsely, "You blasphemed _yoursel__f_?"

Zeus growled at the immortal, young, masked man who _didn't remember_ how he'd become immortal, apparently! He huffed and said, "Why is it that everybody who passes through here says that? I mean, really? How can one blaspheme oneself?"

Tuxedo Kamen pointed his cane directly at Zeus: "You deem yourself a god and yet know nothing of Dante?"

"The poet?" Zeus laughed, then pulled his sword and ran for Tuxedo Mask. When the boy leaped away, Zeus bellowed, "Those poems were **fantasy**! —and you think ME illiterate!" He slashed at the mouthy Kamen several more times, this time with lightening emerging from each slash, then bellowed, "—And why are you jumping away like a flea? Do you believe the immortality stops upon entering Tartarus?"

"_Tartarus__?_" Tuxedo Kamen yelped, jumping away from another of Zeus's slashes before he got sizzled. He leaped upon a ledge, yes like a flea, trying to lure the god away from the gate to the Eighth Circle. But then he remembered that the ancient brute probably equated Hell with Tartarus and laughed at him. Then lurched away from another potentially-fatal blow.

And finally, when Zeus lost his footing after trying to capture him, Tuxedo Kamen made it to the gate and pushed his way through. He glanced back as the angry Zeus yelled, "That's all the thanks I get? FOR IMMORTALITY? Aww _**hell no**_! I'll see you yet again—!"

Mamoru slammed the gate closed and huffed for air. He looked ahead of him, then down …into the deep, dark bowels of the Eighth Circle, which was completely indiscernible from a giant sinkhole. He found himself missing the company of Zeus and Poseidon. "Helios," he said quietly to himself, "Why did you make me come _here_?"

"I can't believe you made it through!"

Mamoru turned around and faced… Beryl?

.

_**Unsettling Discoveries**_

After many _more_ hours of combing through the books and studying the histories, Mercury had a nice family tree going, and many notes on top of that, but Usagi was frustrated. Nothing Mercury had said made any sense to her, and went against everything her Hotaru vision had told her. —not that Usagi wanted the vision of Hotaru to be true, but that it seemed much more likely than the Moon Queen being a Titan, and Helios being her uncle.

Usagi flicked the top of her scepter. She pulled the Silver Crystal from her brooch and pushed it into the scepter. She dropped the scepter onto one of Ami's books, bent down to pick it up, and swung it like a baseball bat. She suddenly struck a pose and said, "Moon Eternal …MAKEUP!"

Nothing. She dropped her head.

Mercury finally looked up from her family tree depictions: "You can't transform?"

Usagi rolled her eyes, then plopped down onto the makeshift sofa and idly picked up a book. "Nope. Ami, don't you think we would have known about the Moon Queen being Helios' _brother_? Really?"

"I don't know," Mercury grunted. "Maybe we were just all too …_flighty_ to think of who our forebears might be, Usa." Shrugging, she said, "The Titans had very long lives —immortal, in fact."

"That's what Eos said," Usagi quipped. "Guess if she's still alive — if you call being a _light_ alive…?"

Mercury spared a smile for her grumpy friend. "ANYWAY, compared to them, we weren't around very long before Metallia laid waste to the Moon Kingdom. —Maybe it just never came up."

Usagi rolled her eyes: "Whatever." Standing up, she stretched and said, "None of this can possibly matter, anyway."

Mercury said, "But you said Eos told you—"

"Forget what Eos told me," Usagi frowned. "I never even _saw_ her. It was just _some voice_ talking to me after Helios kidnapped me."

Mercury stood up likewise and corrected gently, "Usa—"

"She told me _bedtime stories_." She picked up one of the books and flipped it over absently. She saw something pretty on the spine of the book. An inscription—

"But I was just reading about Hyperion's children, including Eos." Mercury moved to Usagi with a book in hand, flipped it open, and said, "And there's something very strange here, Usa. You see, according to this, your mother shouldn't be dead. She was an immortal, like Helios and Eos. For her to have died would have taken a Herculean task, propagated by many conspirators. She couldn't have just _run out of energy_, like Luna described."

Usagi kept rubbing the inscription, wondering what it meant. Beside it was a tiny planet, etched in gold, but the lettering meant nothing to her.

Mercury sighed. "Unless something very strange happened the night that the Moon Kingdom was attacked... I guess Metallia counts as something very strange," she pondered. "I wish Luna were here so we could ask her about the Queen's death, again."

Usagi had opened the book with the cool inscription, looking for pictures, but found nothing. Grimacing, she shoved the book at Ami and asked, "What does that say?"

Mercury rolled her eyes; her friend's quest wasn't going so well and the girl had obviously grown bored. "Usagi, I'm telling you that your Mother couldn't have died that night! Everything I've read suggests it would be impossible, and coupled with the fact that she was the _only_ Greek deity to still be around after the Titans were overthrown, she had to have been very strong—"

Usagi looked at Ami with concern, then said, "It took a lot of energy to send us all to a future, Ames." She clasped her hands together and said, "And look, we're getting nowhere! All these books just tell you the same thing, maybe with a little more detail in each one! None of it is useful to us!"

"We can't just give up," Mercury insisted, smiling with great purpose. She flew up to the top shelves and began searching for another text—

"This isn't the Earth," Usagi said softly, looking at the interesting inscription again. "And it's not the Moon..." She looked up at Ami and said, "Tell me what this writing says?"

Mercury nearly glared at Usagi, but …Usagi was the Princess; she wanted to know an inscription. Mercury lowered herself gently and looked at the book. "The Histories of Lunar Rule?" she asked.

"No," Usagi said. "That tiny print there, with the planet beside it. It looks familiar—"

"Hmm… in our tongue, It's a name from ancient Titan mythology: OURANOS", and she spelled it out for Usagi. "He was Gaia's mate. Very ancient. I think he was the father of Cronus…" She scanned the rest, ignoring Usagi's quiet surprise. "The other print, I'd have to look at my references, but it probably just lists the era the book was made, or the person who bound it—"

"Uranus," Usagi said with disgust, then looked at Mercury's feet. The wings. "And you …you were the Messenger."

"So I'm told!" Mercury smiled. "_Hermes__!_ —Oh I balked at first, especially with the change in my fuku…" She glanced down and looked at the bright gold accents where blue used to be. And while she'd retained the planetary symbols of Mercury in her ears and on her wand, she now had a symbol of the Sun in the center of her front bow. It had been quite distressing, and she'd feared nobody would recognize her, but Usagi had barely batted an eye. Mercury smiled and said, "Then I remembered that the Senshi rarely have anything in common with the Greek deities they replaced."

"The Moon didn't have an equivalent Greek deity," Usagi said, thinking. But mainly she was thinking about the strange bond between Uranus and Hotaru. _Cronus_, if she were to believe Eos. And what Cronus had reportedly done to her father. She softly repeated the common mantra amongst the Inners: "_The Senshi of Death_."

Mercury looked at her friend strangely: "No, Usa! The Moon's deity was _your actual mother_! —And Queen Serenity was hardly a 'Senshi of Death!'" —that's the name some of the Senshi called Sailor Saturn, but Mercury had always disliked that moniker. Even if it seemed to be somewhat accurate. Hotaru was a cute, and very intelligent, child!

"I called them today," Usagi said, haunted. She looked at Ami and clarified, "Before Helios took me, I called Michiru. To see if Hotaru was alright."

Mercury looked up from her book and winced: "Mamoru didn't think you should do that." But she couldn't resist asking the question, especially since she now believed Usagi might have actually seen some form of Sailor Saturn. "How was Hotaru?"

"Gone," Usagi said, standing with her scepter. "To the future, Michiru told me," Usagi said a little angrily. She moved to leave the underground library.

Mercury jumped up and said, "Wait! Usa, where are you going?"

Usagi sneered to the cold, black outside corridor without turning, but stopped. "I've got someone to visit. Someone I talked to earlier today, who gave me the brush-off." None of them had taken her too seriously, she realized, then turned around, biting back tears: "_Haruka_, who's not on our journey!" She pointed at the book with the Ouranous author and clarified: "_Uranus_!"

"Oh, Usagi," Mercury said anxiously, "I know you're looking for any kind of clues, but there's no way Haruka wrote any of this stuff! I wouldn't even believe that she was Ouranous reborn! That would be like Gaia-reborn, Usa, and that just doesn't happen!" She stepped towards Usa and added, "But even if she _were_ Ouranous reborn, she wouldn't have any memory, or knowledge—"

"I'll find that out for myself," Usagi smiled tightly. "—And then, Ami? No more of these books with clues that point back to each other and keep us busy! After I talk to Uranus, I'm going to Hell—"

Mercury grabbed the Princess and exclaimed, "Usagi, wait! No! You can't go there!"

Usagi twisted away from the suddenly-strong Mercury, and her scepter lit up wildly, spinning great white light throughout the underground corridor, but she hardly noticed it. "WHY NOT, Mercury? —I have every right to talk to them! And it makes perfect sense to me now! I saw Hotaru today, whether you want to believe it or not—"

Mercury interrupted, "Usa-chan I believe—!"

"And then I went out of my way to call Michiru and Haruka to ask after her, but I was given some lousy excuse!" Usagi glowered. "Mamoru tried to tell me I was being paranoid, but what happened _right_ after I made that call, Ami? I got kidnapped by Helios, and dumped off in Elysion, and sent on a wild goose chase!"

Mercury shook her head, forcing herself to stand her ground against the blinding light from Usagi's scepter: "Okay! But you can't go back there, Usa-chan!"

"_**What?**_" Usagi asked, incensed. "Maybe you're in on some attempt to keep me holed up here, doing nothing, while everyone else—"

Mercury had fidgeted, but then quickly said, "I mean, you can't go back to _Tartarus_. —Usagi, you have to calm down; we have to reason this out!" She swallowed and, as Usagi burst ahead of her anyway, Mercury added: "Look, I'm doing as I was instructed!" But Usagi ignored her, so in a final attempt to stop the Princess, Mercury yelled, "Usagi, Hotaru was right! You're not who we've believed you were!"


	12. The Eighth Circle

**an unsatisfying tale of separation. **

.

chapter 12.

**_Escaping The Eighth Circle_**

Mamoru slammed the gate closed and huffed for air. He looked ahead of him, then down …into the deep, dark bowels of the Eighth Circle, which was completely indiscernible from a giant sinkhole. He found himself missing the company of Zeus and Poseidon. "Helios," he said quietly to himself, "Why did you make me come here?"

"I can't believe you made it through!"

Mamoru turned around and faced… Beryl? —It had been over three years.

"I know," she seethed, rolling her eyes. "Why am I here. —They got me on _seduction_, if you can believe that!" She shook her head, then cried, "ME! A seductress?" She looked at Endymion and laughed, nodding, "In what universe, right?"

Mamoru couldn't believe he was stuck on a frozen rock ledge of a hell mouth, _with Beryl_. He realized he'd lost his transformation going through that last gate, but couldn't quite bring himself to reach for his transformation now, as he was petrified of the beast beside him.

"So what are you in for?" Beryl asked conspiratorially. "I'd imagined you back in the 7th. For suicide."

"Suicide?" he finally railed, the first word he'd spoken aloud in the ice pit of Hell.

Beryl chuckled: "Seriously? Asking a god to plant you in the ground so you could stay young forever _for her_? —if that's not suicide, I don't know what is! Do I lie? Am I right?"

Mamoru shifted uncomfortably and quietly repeated to himself, '_This is a journey; this is just a journey…_'

"Journey?" Beryl laughed. "Oh, so you're going on then," she gleamed. "I've never known anyone that damned bad, Endymion! You must have really gotten into a mess after you turned on me!"

Suddenly a fire arrow struck through Beryl chest, and her shriek pierced the depths of the caverns. Mamoru jumped backwards on instinct, even though he'd recognized the attack, and found himself falling through the icy air.

After several levels of fiends reaching out for him, he landed hard on a winged beast, and was held in place by Sailor Jupiter. Sailor Mars was behind them, and Helios was guiding the beast through the air. He was so scared that he couldn't draw air.

Helios spun the winged demon around, then pointed him down, headfirst into the bowels of this cavern. Mamoru screamed again, but Sailor Jupiter yelled over the noise, "The others are stuck here; we're trying to grab them and get out!"

"Usagi?" Mamoru asked, but grabbed wildly onto the slimy back of this winged beast.

"No: Luna, Artemis, and Venus!" Sailor Jupiter yelled. Then quickly demanded: "Mamoru, TRANSFORM!"

"Here?" he squeaked, but grabbed his cane and immediately started transforming… he fell off the beast, but was taken up mid-air as he spun into his tuxedo. And then he dropped again, onto the back of the beast that Helios had spun back around to catch him.

Mars yelled, "Helios was stuck here, too… for being a false prophet!"

The now-horned priest looked behind him, up at the two Senshi and Prince Endymion, then yelled into the wind: "It was a calculated risk! I knew if I came in here that would be a danger!"

Jupiter told him to shut up and drive, then said, "Luna was stuck here for falsifying her identity; Artemis and Venus for trying to free Luna, and then they found Helios."

But when they rounded on the bottom level of the Eighth Circle, they didn't see Luna at all, just various humans. Still, Helios pulled into a tiny crevice and yelled, "Jump!"

Tuxedo Mask realized with horror that the woman who joined them _was_ Luna — the yellow moon on her forehead gave her away clearly.

"Where's Venus?" Mars yelled.

The newcomer, Luna, had Artemis tucked in her large, black robes; she loosened her death grip on the back of the beast and pointed downward —into the gate of the final circle of Hell. "They took her for trying to rescue me!"

.

**_Escaping the Moon_**

In a final attempt to stop the Princess, Mercury yelled, "Usagi, Hotaru was right! You're not who we've believed you were!"

"What?" Usagi spun around, seething. "You _are_ working for Helios! You're trying to keep me from leaving!"

Mercury was quickly in front of her, grabbing her forearms in a plea for understanding: "No. I work for _you_, Usa, and only you! You KNOW that!"

Usagi backed away, horrified; nothing made sense just now.

"Look at me," Mercury insisted gently, trying to smile. "I know this is a lot to take in, but if you'll just let me explain!"

Usagi asked through teared-up eyes, "I'm not who you believed? Ami, _what does that_ _mean_?" But Usagi had already considered that Hotaru _had_ provided her the answer earlier that day. '_Not a Senshi._' She closed her eyes and let the tears fall as she thought back to what Helios had let slip, about how she and Mamoru weren't meant to be together. It made perfect sense, now! Endymion was meant for _the Moon Princess_, and that was apparently not her! "I'm not the Moon Princess," Usagi uttered, heartbroken.

"No! No, you're misunderstanding Usa!" Mercury pleaded. "Look! I did as I was instructed!" Mercury said, shoving a scroll into Usagi's free hand. "And there's good reason for it! To save you AND the Earth! —isn't that what you wanted? Isn't that the purpose of our journey?"

Usagi stared at Mercury and crumpled the scroll angrily in her hand, frustrated with being jerked around so many different ways. "Why did you wait so long to tell me this? And who _instructed_ you to do this? —Was it Helios?"

"No," Mercury said, beside herself that she might not do this simple task correctly. She opened the crumpled scroll in Usagi's hands and insisted, "Read it, Usa-chan! Or look at it while I recite it to you! And as to who instructed me, it's like I said! I work only for _you_! I believe that the author of that scroll was someone you trust implicitly!" And with that, Mercury started reciting the scroll from memory:

.

[addressed to] [**Hermes of the Sun:**]

in the age when you read this we all will be severally changed and not remember ourselves as we ought, and yet the chase will have continued as from the first, and we will still be hiding. You receive this missive not to deliver, but to be instructed, that you might deliver us all in a time when I will be removed of memories. I am not to ever go to the inner depths of Tartarus, because I tell you now a truth that only two know: that I have built that sanctuary, and built it purposefully in such detestable fashion that he who would discover me would be repulsed by it! And yet, without my memories, I would likewise be repulsed by it, because I am of my nature like he who pursues me, and it would be in my nature to both avoid Tartarus and to destroy it instantly. In my service I request you protect Tartarus, at any cost.

[Sealed] [**Serenity, Moon Goddess in a peaceable time, friend of Zeus**]

.

Moments later, after Usagi had let her eyes scroll over the illegible text as Mercury read it, the Messenger said, "I didn't mean you weren't the Moon Princess, Usagi. I meant you are her, _and_ _something more_. —Just like I am the planetary Senshi of Mercury, but was also given the mission and powers of Hermes, who himself is cast into Tartarus." She pointed at her winged feet and said, "See? And I didn't immediately tell you about the scroll because Chiral suggested that we all should come to our own conclusions—"

"This is _so sad_, Ami!" Usagi interrupted, looking up at her friend. "My mother thought she'd live until now." Usagi frowned sadly, staring at the missive even though the script was nonsensical to her. She looked up at Ami again and smiled softly, but with tears glistening her eyes. "Maybe you were right earlier, that she wasn't **supposed** to die. She obviously thought she'd be here for you to help 'deliver' her," Usagi said softly. She looked away, then burst into tears. "But she wasn't here for you to deliver. It was only me."

Mercury sighed deeply. "Usagi, listen to me!" She knelt before the Princess and brightly said, "I'd like you to think about all the _extensive genealogies_ we read today, trying to determine your origins. Isn't it strange to you that there wasn't even one reference made to your father?"

"Yeah, I know," Usagi shrugged, wiping her nose. "I figured he must have been a real jerk."

Mercury shook her head mournfully. "No, Usagi. From the moment I read that scroll, it sounded like the Moon Queen fully expected to be here now, devoid of memories. And I wondered if she just got caught up in an unfortunate accident, as you believe." Mercury placed a hand on Usagi's arm and said, "But there is another possibility found in the scroll as well."

Usagi looked completely blank, so Mercury figured she should spell it out for her. "So I looked _specifically_ for any sign or hope that you had a father." She winced. "Not only did I find no such reference, but I found every evidence that your mother _couldn't_ have died that day Metallia attacked, at least not the way Luna has described. Immortals don't simply 'run out of energy', no matter what the task! Right? Definition of 'immortal'?" Then Ami said carefully: "So if Luna weren't lying about the Moon Queen's 'death' — by simply running out of energy — I think we can be absolutely certain, Usagi, that your mother is NOT dead."

Usagi shook her head, feeling quite beside herself: "No, you're wrong, Ami. She's dead. She appeared to me years ago." Usagi nervously re-rolled the scroll, trying to work out the wrinkles in it as she did so, then handed it back to Ami. She figured that this was as good a time as any to pick up and go see Haruka…

Mercury decided to try a different tactic. "Remember what Hotaru said to you, Usa? That _you_ claimed Helios was your brother, but she knew better?"

Usagi rolled her eyes: "Nothing Hotaru said made a lot of sense."

"And yet you believed her!" Mercury nodded. "And what about Eos? You called them bedtime stories, Usa, but those stories explained Hotaru's appearance to you in on the river! —Usagi, Hotaru thought she was talking to _your mother_!"

Usa shook her head ruefully, although she felt a hint of discomfort she couldn't explain. She said, "No, Ames, my mother didn't know Hotaru — at least, not as 'Hotaru'. Hotaru was talking to _me_. And like the rest of us, Hotaru knows that the Moon Queen died!" She nervously brandished her Moon Scepter and began to walk away….

"You're wrong, Usa," Mercury said, sensing her friend's growing fear and confusion. "Your mother didn't die. She sent us to the future, and then she appeared to collapse, and Luna assumed she was dead — but remember, she mentioned 'hiding' from someone, and even 'removing her memories'! Somehow she didn't—"

Usagi was angry at the continued suggestions from her friend, and turned around: "My mother wouldn't have **abandoned** me, Ami! She was a very kind woman, and she loved me! Remember that!"

Ami agreed: "Of course she wouldn't have abandoned you, Usa-chan!"

"Then where is she?" Usagi yelled incredulously, looking around the corridors wildly as if to 'discover' her mother's spirit. Letting her scepter hit the ground, she stared at Ami: "I don't know about your scrolls, or even Hotaru, but I know my mother hasn't been alive all these years! She is DEAD!"

Mercury stepped backwards but challenged her friend, "Then why wouldn't I want you to go to Tartarus, Usagi? Why would _Helios_ make sure you didn't get into the depths of Tartarus?"

"I'll GO to Tartarus, Ami! I was on my way, anyway!" Usagi said, then stormed around Ami with her scepter and made to leave—

"And if you do go, and you destroy it because '_it's in your nature'_? Usagi, they all DIE!" Mercury said angrily as she flew to Usagi's side. With wild eyes, she said, "So you'd better be VERY sure of yourself… VERY sure that Helios, Hotaru, Eos, and whomever wrote the scroll and gave me this power-up… you'd better be SURE they're ALL wrong."

Usagi stopped. Breathing. She stared at Ami and said, "Wrong about what."

"You know what," Mercury said. She nodded knowingly and said, "I don't know how, Usa, but having eliminated the _impossible_, what we're left with, however improbable, must be the truth." She look right at Usagi and said, "_You _are the one who wrote that scroll. _You _are the one devoid of memories now. And _you _are the one who must not visit Tartarus. Usa-chan, you ARE _that_ Serenity."


	13. The Eighth Senshi

**an unsatisfying tale of separation. **

.

chapter 13.

_**The Eighth Senshi**_

Michiru was busily packing for a long trip when Usagi appeared in her room, startling her. "Usagi-chan," Michiru said, forcing a smile.

"Where's Uranus," Usagi said hoarsely, looking around.

Michiru's breath was lost. Usagi added, "Don't bother lying; I suspect she's my father, or at least knows who my father is. And I need to know. _NOW._ All my friends' lives depend on it, _Mitch_."

Michiru blanched and backed up, then Haruka entered the room and interrupted: "So you know."

Usagi spun and angrily screamed, "I know NOTHING! —after all I've done for you, you STILL hide the truth from me! I can't imagine ever trusting you again!"

Michiru sat gingerly on the bed, and was joined by Haruka. "Usa-chan, I don't know what you've found out… what you know—"

Usagi held her scepter pointed at Michiru and said to Haruka, "I know how important it is for you to be with _Mitch_ forever, so let's assume I know everything, mmm'kay?"

Haruka grew angry, but Michiru placed a hand on hers to remind her of their duty. Haruka shrugged and said, "I worked for your mother in the Silver Millennium; she saved me from a fate worse than death."

"How so," Usagi demanded, scepter still at the ready. She wouldn't hurt either of them, but she'd surely imprison them until she knew they weren't lying anymore.

Michiru said, "If you don't already know, then you must give us a little time to explain everything, Usa-chan! —You see, well, …your mother wanted us to protect the solar system—"

Michiru found herself bound to the ceiling by Usagi's scepter! Haruka jumped up and said, "You're acting no better than a daimon, Usagi!"

"And what of your lies, the lies you've been telling all along?" Usagi said, standing firm. "When the others wanted to dash you, and COULD have, I protected you. When I could have done the same, it didn't even _occur_ to me to harm either of you." She stepped towards Haruka, unleashing even more energy through her scepter to keep Michiru firmly on the ceiling, and stormed, "But you're **mistaken** if you think I fear you!"

"I don't think, or even want, that, Kitten!" Haruka yelled. Glancing at a pained-looking Michiru on the ceiling, Haruka added with a softer tone, "And I _don't_ think you'd intentionally hurt us! Get her down and we'll tell you anything you want to know!"

"No," Usagi said. "I dictate the terms here. YOU give me something I don't know, THEN I let her down."

"Fine!" Haruka said, then transformed to Sailor Uranus.

Uranus stood before Usagi and said, "I was here, Kitten! Long ago, long before even Michiru."

"Yeah, read the book," Usagi snarled.

Uranus was surprised, but nodded. "Maybe there were books. I've lived for eons, I'm afraid. Well before even your Endymion."

"Good; then you know a lot of stuff," Usagi sneered, and flicked her scepter, instantly dropping Michiru to the bed below.

Haruka quickly scanned Michiru, then said, "There's no need for hostility, Usagi; as you **should** know, we're all indentured to you. **_By choice. _**Several times over!"

Usagi said, "I don't want you 'indentured'; I don't want your services." She huffed angrily and yelled, "I want you to come CLEAN!" She looked away for a second, trying to tamp down her fury. They were admitting they knew far more than they'd ever told her or the Inner Senshi, or Mamoru… She glared back at them both and said, "I had to do the River Acheron today, Uranus! Know what that is?"

Uranus chuckled angrily, "Do I ever—"

Usagi continued angrily, "But then I was forcibly removed from the party, and I was imprisoned in Elysion. I called you asking about Hotaru because I saw her in a vision. Hotaru said she and I were both **_hiding_**—!"

Uranus looked confused, and humbly held up a hand: "I don't know Sailor Saturn's story; honest, Usagi. We haven't had time to discuss it with her."

"She's not lying," Michiru said softly. "And when we had opportunity to discuss it with her, after you convinced us not to kill her, Hotaru was _an infant_, unable to speak. But we know she's a sweet child, —and of course I told Haruka you called from Greece."

"Then tell me what Hotaru and I are supposedly _hiding_ from?" Usagi demanded. "—Oh, and I'm already aware that I am supposedly my mother's _clone_." She sneered, "Sweet thing left a _scroll_, and _she_ mentioned hiding, as well. So again, what are Hotaru and I hiding from?"

"I **don't** _**know**_!" Uranus growled, very frustrated. "Before the Silver Millennium, there was a Golden Age, Usako." She bit her lip and said, pleadingly, "In a way, we're all '_hiding_'; the wars amongst the powers had always been so duplicitous that nobody could trust anybody. That's why your mother made the Senshi."

"What?!" Usagi railed, again not noticing the white light spinning out of her scepter brightly. "Our star seeds have been around forever! Nobody MADE us!" —and then she choked quiet, thinking that if Ami was right, she indeed was somehow 'made'. A clone of her mother; possibly possessed by her mother?!

Michiru calmly explained, even in the fierce light of Usagi's scepter, "The star seeds were always around, Usa-chan, but they weren't always sources of mystical powers." The light was blinding Michiru... "Surely you remember we were called by royal titles: _Princesses_ and Princes, Dukes, Emperors…" She hoped her rapport with Usagi still held some measure of respect. "But before that, before my memories, and yours, there had been much fighting between the deities, and many mortals got involved. The wars distressed Serenity very much."

"Very much; in fact, her solution to most wars was to separate the divisive parties," Uranus added carefully. " I ruled as king of the Golden Age, and was mated with Gaia during a peaceful realm. But one of my own offspring, Cronus, overthrew me."

"_D__isfigured_ her," Michiru said. "Uranus was moved to Elysion and largely forgotten."

Uranus added, "Gaia later came to me so we could help our son Cronus, who was clearly …_disturbed_. It was then that Gaia told me that it was Serenity who had insisted on moving me to Elysion instead of bearing a civil war between the Titans."

"And when the Titans were wholly overthrown, Serenity's wish wasn't for them to suffer eternally, or to serve under the Olympians, but rather to be removed to Tartarus," Michiru supplied. "And later, the Titans were moved to Elysion and who we would call 'the Olympians' were placed in Tartarus." The Senshi of Neptune swallowed, trying not to let the fear coursing through her veins show itself. "At that time, Serenity sought out Uranus and offered her a place among the Senshi!"

"I'm confused," Usagi said. "Cronus was …who? Zeus or something?" Usagi asked, testing to see if their stories were truth or not, and also to get back on topic: the offspring of Uranus, and if she, Usagi, was one of them.

"Cronus was one of many children," Uranus said. "He staged an uprising that I didn't see coming…" Uranus blushed at Usagi's glare and said, "Mistakes were made."

"Doesn't that have something to do with me?" Usagi asked sternly, pushing harder now.

Uranus felt confused, but said, "Gaia was always taking in strays, trying to strengthen the Earth with the most brilliant star seeds she could find, so the planet could be powerful and exist as long as possible. And you were one of those that Gaia brought in!"

Michiru clarified: "The Titan, Hyperion, and all of his children were brought to this solar system very early, and hailed as unique powers!"

"Only," Uranus said, "I knew Serenity wasn't OF the Titans, Kitten. —I was among the first of the Titans, and I knew of Hyperion's twins. Suddenly his 'twins' were three; and the third became Gaia's best friend. Then she was suddenly crowned Queen of the Moon immediately upon arrival."

"And even after the Titans were overthrown, unlike every other Titan, Serenity remained in power," Michiru added.

"Which must have been the plan all along, I believe. Because even after the Moon Kingdom fell, the Earth remained," Uranus said carefully. "Still remains, to this day!"

"Far longer than it should have," Michiru explained. "And I'm sure lots of systems draw attention, but the Earth's lifespan, and its unique, magnificent moon, were clearly the jewel of the entire cosmos! We drew attention."

"Chaos," Usagi mumbled, but wishing any of this sounded familiar to her.

"Exactly," Uranus said, nodding emphatically. "Chaos had always sought bright star seeds — the brightest _souls_. I suppose to retain his power, or to put fear in us all."

"But why would my mother go to Gaia? —To this solar system, if she wasn't originally the Moon Queen?" Usagi asked, trying to remain calm but very near tears. "I don't understand any of this, Haruka."

Uranus said, "I can't tell you, Kitten! I really didn't know much of Serenity except by rumor — rumors I didn't believe, as I said — until she herself took me in as Senshi."

"She took me in, as well, gifting me with some of the powers of my progenitor, who had been damned to Tartarus," Michiru said. She stood and transformed into Eternal Sailor Neptune.

And now Sailor Neptune said, "I was Poseidon at one point, though I don't remember being him at all. Maybe we're alike in age, Usa-chan? Since you can't remember things, either? It seems that the older your star seed is, the better you remember things. —which is why Uranus can remember so much."

Uranus said, "There was a time when none of this was even a question; the Titans worked for the good of humanity, and we were well-loved!" Haruka frowned: "But Cronus changed all that."

"Do you know of Cronus' fate?" Usagi asked quietly, finally relaxing her scepter. Maybe Hotaru had been more than a silly vision. Too many things were adding up now, and like Ami had said, Usa couldn't think that everyone she'd talked to today was lying.

"Tartarus, I'd assume," Uranus said. "Cronus had heard an oracle of his ghastly fate; that's why he ate his children."

Usagi grew alarmed, but quickly controlled it. Eos' story about Cronus now completely matched the Outers' story. That _had_ been Hotaru she'd seen on the River. —outside of Tartarus, if she understood how the mysterious 'Hell' worked now.

Uranus didn't even like the thought of his monster son, Cronus, that he and Gaia had borne; she even liked to hope that Gaia had actually taken a different mate as father for Cronus, although lying about such things back then was unheard of.

"You didn't come to hear about Cronus, Usa-chan," Michiru said quietly.

Uranus shrugged again and said, "The biggest secret we know is that your mother made you from herself, without father. We don't know how, although it was said that spawning offspring from oneself was something an Ancient could do." The Senshi smiled at Usagi's sullen look, and added softly, "She had intended for you to be able to experience the life of a mortal, even though you're .._not_. If it's any consolation, I'm sure she'd be proud of you today, Usa-chan."

"Yeah," Usagi agreed, very upset but trying to hide it. —obviously even Uranus believed the Moon Queen to be dead. And of course she was dead! All that stuff Ami had said was truly misguided. Still, Usagi wasn't comfortable with all the different stories flying around about her origins...

There were sirens going off outside, but she ignored them. The building was shaking, but none of the three were alarmed by that.

"We can't explain it," Neptune said. "Zeus, who was the strongest being of our time, even he couldn't reproduce _himself_. Even that legend about a child springing from his head was false!"

"Thank God," Haruka said quietly, looking away.

Neptune smiled quickly at Usagi and said, "You …you share the same, um.. well, _you're _essentially_ Serenity_. Only with your own thoughts and memories." Neptune looked away, wanting to yell at the Princess that it should be a source of pride that her mother wanted a child that much!

"Serenity Reborn, in a sense," Uranus quickly added. "So that you could experience true love; a somewhat normal life. That's all your mother wanted for you—"

"She couldn't experience love," Usagi suddenly said coldly. She crossed her arms over her chest, half-wondering if Endymion had somehow sworn to _her mother_ instead of to her! And then wondered if there were a difference. She wasn't overly fond of her mother at that moment, regardless of which story proved to be true. Her mother could have left HER a scroll explaining things, but nooooo... the scroll went to the Messenger.

She wondered if the scroll were a fake; a trick, to keep her out of Tartarus.

Neptune laughed, "Serenity was _f__ull_ of life and love, but experiencing a mortal life was beyond her. She wanted to experience love, and witness it; and through you, she did!"

As the building continued to shake, Uranus took a peek outside to see the world coming to a halt with glistening death. She licked her lips and turned back to the quiet Usagi: "Why are you here, Usagi?"

"To save my friends in …in _Tartarus_, I guess it is," Usagi said. But then she asked the ancient being dressed like Sailor Uranus, "Who was your father?"

"Another Chronus… the so-called 'Father of Time'. —But we and my siblings knew little of our parents, Kitten," Uranus said. "In fact, there were times I'd believed I'd been The First!"

Usagi nodded. "That's why when Gaia brought my mother into Hyperion's home, you, of all the Titans, could _question_ it." Although she knew that Hotaru had also questioned it. But Hotaru hadn't been _sure_; she'd just guessed that Usagi was some freak like her that had done something horrible and needed the asylum of Gaia.

Uranus said, "I knew of Hyperion's twins suddenly being triplets, but before I could inquire, I was felled by Cronus. I know _with certainty_, though, that Hyperion was not your father, And if you question that you were cloned, I can't help you — I can't honestly say who your father might have been, because I believe you were cloned. If you could see your mother—"

"But why did you allow Serenity to pass herself off as Hyperion's daughter?" Usagi queried, nearly shaking trying to keep tears from coming to her eyes. What she'd WANTED to hear, more than anything, was that Uranus had met and fallen in love with her mother… that Uranus was her father. Or at least KNEW of her father! That she wasn't some freak without a dad… or, worse yet, without unique DNA.

Uranus smiled: "Because, I trusted Gaia instinctively, even after I was overthrown. Serenity was a very bright light. Like yourself. And at that time, truly an unheard of power in the whole galaxy." She bit her lip and said, "And I imagine, an entity _older than the Tita__ns_. Or at the very least, from another galaxy; a strange galaxy far away. Because there's no way a system could lose a power like your mother and not go seeking it out."

"Maybe that's why she was hiding," Usagi whimpered, trying hard not to burst into tears.

"The Olympians, and reportedly the Ancients like Uranus, simply didn't speak of such things, Usa," Neptune said. "It sounds superstitious to us, I suppose, but back then those ancient powers seemed very real, and all the deities were scared they would call down destruction on themselves for even wondering about their forebears." She looked out the window and realized that the worst had happened somehow, but one simply couldn't worry about such things with Serenity here… She also wondered if one of those Protogenoi, the very, _very_ Ancients, had overheard her speaking of them and struck the planet in response. Neptune shivered.

Usagi felt cold, and alone. But she didn't let Uranus come near her; she backed away, scepter tucked in her folded arms. She let a tear fall, and asked in a hushed whisper, "Haruka could I be my mother?"

Uranus shook her head: "Your mother died, Kitten; but you might feel like that because you share her identity, in a sense."

Usagi shook her head, wondering how Ami was doing… but she still had her own mission to complete. A mission to find her origins. And she was completely failing. As she coughed out tears, she looked up at the Senshi and cried, "Who was before you, Uranus?" She wiped her eyes and tried to lift her suddenly-very-heavy scepter. "Anyone! Your father—?"

"Nobody, Kitten," Uranus said quietly, fighting the instinct to hold the uber-powerful and very confused Princess. "I'm the last."

Neptune started saying something, but is soon hit Usagi: Chronos, the so-called Father of Time, had a living relative. One of her own Senshi, in fact. She looked at the Outers and said, "We're going to the Time Door."

.


	14. Hell

**an unsatisfying tale of separation. **

.

chapter 14.

_**Hell**_

Sailor Venus waited at a large, wooden table as the rest of her group dropped unceremoniously through a chute into the hot room and landed hard on the ground. She looked over at them and sneered, "First step's a bitch."

"Venus!" Artemis corrected. "You can't let your environs corrupt you so!"

"We're in Hell, Artemis," Jupiter said, then took a seat by Venus and fanned herself vigorously.

Venus watched as demons escorted the rest of her original party, minus Usagi and Ami, to their respective seats at the table. She said, "Get this, _**Helios**_; I'm charged with SEDITION! Can you _IMAGINE_?"

Helios, without looking at her, whispered, "Say. Nothing."

Tuxedo Kamen was seated in the empty chair beside Venus, and Sailors Mars and Jupiter were seated on her other side. Then came human-form Luna, holding the mouthy Artemis, and finally, at the far end of the table, was Mamoru's advisor, the priest of Elysion, Helios.

"All quiet, please," said a distinctly male voice who almost sounded bored.

Tuxedo Kamen decided it would be best to drop his transformation, but was quite surprised, however, when upon doing so, he was wearing even more garb than Tuxedo Kamen! He was Prince Endymion!

"Excellent! You dressed for the occasion," said Prince Dimande. He marched around the table and bent over Endymion, staring him in the eyes: "Do you know what happens when a Protogenoi goes batshit crazy?"

"Not surprised to see you in Hell, Dimande," Mamoru said with as much confidence as he could muster, arched back from his arch-nemesis as he was. He tried to digest the odd question. He'd heard the term 'Protogenoi' before, but could hardly imagine knowing one, or even what they might do if they'd lost their marbles. They were …personifications of thoughts or ideas, like 'belief' and 'faith' and 'evil'.

—But mostly he was just shocked to see his arch-nemesis running Hell!

Dimande smiled and said, "We're not in _Hell_, Endymion; your batshit crazy Protogenoi protected me from such a curse!" He turned to the human form of Luna and said, "Of course, _who could have known_ that Serenity wasn't quite who she made herself out to be!"

Helios jumped up, but Prince Dimande's minions immediately put him down, squashed flat in the chair. Dimande said, "We don't exactly have 'fair trials' here, demon liar! I mean, '_Helios'_."

Mamoru said, "Now wait a minute, Dimande! Helios here is merely leading an expedition to try to heal me and the whole planet! And I hope you didn't call my Usako 'batshit crazy'!" He stood to face his nemesis, and noted with relief that his demons stayed far away from him, probably on account of his great physique. "Oh, and Usagi is exactly who she says she is. —_idiot_." Dimande could hardly be surprised that Usagi was Sailor Moon, of course, so it had to be that the former prince of a dead moon was shocked when Usagi accepted Mamoru's marriage proposal.

Dimande glared at the group and said, "I'm not really '_Prince Dimande'_, by the way; you're seeing the best representation your group can conceive of a valid judge."

"Valid _rapist_," Mamoru muttered. But Dimande didn't fall for the ploy; he wasn't easily rattled, it seemed. "Okay, what are we _on trial_ for?" Mamoru demanded.

Helios said, "Say _nothing_, Endymion." And to the judge, Helios said, "Prince Dimande, or whomever you are, I take full responsibility for the Journey, as it was necessary for the health of the planet! But I assure you that this unjust inquisition is unnecessary!"

"Oh, it's _**very**_ necessary," Dimande said, glaring at Luna. "Or do you really want to be sent directly to the Protogenoi, that they might discover and destroy ALL our worlds!"

"_**WHO**_ is this _Protogenoi_?" Mamoru asked, agitated. "Let us have a go at them; after all, it's our duty to protect this planet!"

Prince Dimande laughed and said, "Well, knowing history as I do, I know that to be true! In fact, you've _been_ talking to _him_; you've **died** for _him_!"

"God?" Mamoru asked.

Helios jumped up: "Yes! Yes, that's it!" He looked at Mamoru and said, "You died for the greater good, which in this case ultimately served the One God!" He glared at Dimande, "—You can't deny it, now let us go that the Prince might be healed!"

Dimande shrugged, then turned back to the group: "Sure thing! But you know the rules, Heli-loser. First, I just need to hear what you've _learned_ from your Journey before you meet its end."

"And then I can see my Usako?" Mamoru asked, almost too hopefully given who the inquisitor was.

Dimande smiled widely, but said nothing.

Mamoru was supposed to start apparently; all eyes were on him. This farce of a 'trial' was ridiculous enough, but then, all of this whole _Dante's Inferno_ stupidity was even worse. However, he did supposedly have some mysterious injury to heal. He swallowed hard and said, "Um, …I learned that Zeus wasn't just a fantastical character from the imagination of ancient poets."

The room quieted and dimmed, and then a spotlight shone on Mamoru, so he nervously looked down and added, "Okay, and that the Senshi here each seem to have replaced the Greek deities during the Silver Millennium." He glanced at Venus, who he imagined had to have been Aphrodite; and Mars and Jupiter, who had to have been Ares and Zeus, respectively. "I'm not sure about Luna, of course…"

Dimande smiled at Luna, and asked the prince, "Yes, let's discuss Luna, _Prince Endymion_!"

Mamoru noticed the strange cat-turned-woman Luna shrink into her seat, but he shrugged: "She was Queen Serenity's advisor; I actually have memories of her and Artemis flanking the Moon Queen in the Silver Millennium."

"Do you now," Dimande smiled. He looked to the Senshi and asked, "And do any of you share such memories, as well?"

Venus shrugged, but Jupiter said, "I sure do! We _all_ do!"

Mars agreed: "Yes of course." She huffed and looked away, trying to ignore a slimy demon right behind her, guarding her every move.

Dimande approached the leader of the Senshi and asked, "You too?"

"Yes," Venus said, looking away in shame.

"And were we wrong in detaining you for sedition?" Dimande asked.

Venus slumped over the table and said, "You don't _understand_. It might have looked like 'sedition', but—"

"But nothing!" Dimande said. "You purposefully set out to aid and abet these frauds after learning of their duplicities!"

"That Luna was a cat?" Sailor Mars snarled. "Come on! She wasn't trying to HIDE—!"

"And we all know that!" Jupiter said. "And so what if Helios isn't rocking a HORN on his head; sorta hard to fit in Greece with a HORN on your head!"

But Luna growled at Dimande, "You DON'T understand, you overdressed loon! _**Yes**_, Helios and I practiced deception, but for the cause of the planet! We'd ALL be long gone now, including THIS claptrap of an underworld, if we hadn't! —and _even Zeus_ knew he couldn't have kept his promise to Endymion if it weren't for that deception!"

"What promise?" Mamoru asked, offended.

Luna ignored him and continued, "Endymion would have died long ago, and …oh, you want to talk about _Protogenoi_? Fine! You know NOTHING of them!" She had fully stood by then, and Helios with her, challenging Dimande.

Helios added cautiously to Luna, "Nor do we, Luna, but we know it's better to have one on our side than against us!" And he hoped the one he now figured had to be Cronus, who'd actually sought out and spoken with the Princess much earlier today, would come to his senses and agree here!

"Who the HELL are you talking about?" Mars asked Luna and Helios. "I know nothing of these …proto -homos? _-whatever_! But we've beaten Chaos several times; and he's pretty darn strong. I think we can take out these Protos if we have to!"

Jupiter punched her own hand and agreed emphatically: "Yeah; we'll take out the Proto Goons you're so scared of!"

Mamoru agreed: "Yes, especially if that's what we have to do to find Usagi." He glanced over at Helios, who was purposefully looking away from him. "Right, Helios?"

Dimande, however, was stuck on the Senshi of Mars' declaration of defeating _Chaos_ and, laughing, asked, "What if I told you that Chaos had a _sister_." —But it wasn't a question; he had a wide smile on his face.

"Like Metallia?" Mamoru blustered with pride. "We'll do what we have to protect the planet."

"Good answer, Prince Endymion!" Dimande said, clapping his hands together.

Helios burst in again: "It WAS a good answer; he unknowingly did it before, and he's done it ever since."

Dimande turned back to Endymion and asked, "Now, what have you learned on this Journey, Endymion?"

Mamoru was stuck, disturbed by the question. The _repeated_ questioning. "Where's Usako?" he demanded, standing up.

"Ding ding ding!" Dimande laughed, then turned suddenly on Mamoru. "FINALLY! You've asked the right question! …well, sort of. But anyway, now for the answers!" and he turned to Helios.

Helios shook his head, then said, "This isn't right; this isn't what's prescribed now!" He stared at the vile Cronus and said, "What are you trying to do? Destroy us all?"

Dimande laughed and clamped a hand on Endymion's shoulder: "THEY said they'd TAKE OUT the Protogenoi, Helios! That they're our _saviors_!"

Mamoru shoved Dimande back, then moved to punch him in the face: "Let's go! You and me, here and now—!"

"Indeed!" Dimande gleamed, stepping away in time to tumble Endymion and send him flying across the far wall.

..

A loud horn sounded throughout the room, and they all saw a strange Senshi flying in, decked with golden wings at her feet. Jupiter jumped up and asked, "Sailor Mercury?"

"What happened to you?" Mars asked, also standing, even though the demon slug behind her was trying to push her back down. Mercury had greatly changed, with her fuku being primarily gold now with only hints of the blue. She was completely missing her blue visor! And she was bearing a gold horn in one hand, and a scroll in the other.

Venus said, "You're Hermes?" and had to cover a smile on her face.

Dimande glared at her. This one was one of the few who could successfully enter Tartarus at any point to deliver messages —although it was usually to deliver a prank. "You have got to be kidding me! From whom could you _**possibly**_ be carrying a message!"

Mercury flew down towards the table and delicately dropped the scroll on the table before the one dressed to look like Prince Dimande. She turned to him and said, "We have been summoned to the Moon forthwith, Cronus. While there is still time."

And as they all watched, 'Prince Dimande' warped into a tall, lovely form of the one they knew as Hotaru. This Hotaru turned to the group and seethed, "Then Tartarus has been compromised."

"By whom?" Sailor Jupiter demanded of the strange Senshi of Death, although inwardly shivering with the knowledge that Usagi's exact vision had been exactly correct. Because _here was Hotaru_, and she was clearly hiding from someone. And _times__ they were a'changing_ — Mercury was barely recognizable, though still quite cute.

Luna wholeheartedly agreed: "Yes, indeed: who are we running from?" She looked at Helios nervously.

Helios felt the gaze of Cronus, one of the most detestable creatures known to ever grace the worlds, and finally responded: "You ask 'Who's _after_ us?' —No, the question is, who's _already attacked_ us!" Helios feared it was already too late, what with the Messenger here so soon. He powerfully lifted an arm to darken the room, then flashed a strange light pointedly at Mamoru.

Sailor Mars screamed in horror, but Saturn walked up to the so-called Earth Prince and felt the iced-over javelin that was pierced through his gut. "Compliments of the Protogenoi, of course," Saturn sneered. "The demon liar is right; they already got us."

"What is it?" the Messenger asked, floating downward in utter horror.

"Can it be …removed?" Mamoru asked timidly, wondering now if he'd ever see Usagi again… Tears filled his eyes as he looked at the priest who'd dragged them all here; who'd been right, after all, about the injury. And judging by the looks of it, a _fatal_ injury, at that.

"Who are the Protogenoi?" Sailor Venus quietly asked Hotaru as she, too, carefully examined the hellish lance pierced through Mamoru.

Artemis stepped forward and asked Cronus, "And what can we do to fix _this_?"

Saturn smiled, then looked at the Messenger. "Only a Protogenoi could have placed this; we know this, right—?"

"WHEN?" Mamoru squealed, looking around the room as if to find the answer.

"I'd suggest that only a Protogenoi could remove it," Saturn sneered at the white cat, then at Endymion. "Guess you'd better get to work on that, '_Prince'_."

Helios stepped forward and said, "I had no idea how far gone this was…" He quickly looked at the Messenger and asked, "Does the Earth stand?"

Jupiter said, "Um, we're IN it! Of course it _stands_!"

Sailor Mercury finally landed by her fellow Senshi and said, "This wasn't exactly the place we believed it was, guys. They call it Tartarus, though it's hardly like the Tartarus you might have read about…." She swallowed: "And it's not part of the planet—"

"Not part of Earth?" Mamoru asked, angrily. "How is that possible? We never left the planet!"

Helios said, "Endymion, I had to remove you from the planet, to discover what the problem was—."

"And remove him from the influence of the Protogenoi, I suppose?" Saturn sneered.

Helios met Luna's glare directly, but said nothing." Back to Cronus, he said, "Given that this arrow is frozen solid, I'd have to guess that we made the trip just in time. But I'm afraid that since Endymion is a representation of the health of the planet—"

"The planet's been attacked?" Mars asked. "LIKE THIS?" she added, trying to jerk the spear of ice from Mamoru's frame. As the Prince writhed in pain, the other Senshi pulled Mars away from him.

Luna snapped, "Where's Usagi, Helios?"

Mercury snapped up to answer that question: "She was on the Moon, Luna, but she's returned to look for …" she bit her lip and glanced at Saturn. "You know, Hotaru and the other Senshi."

Helios contemplated that answer quietly. "So her Journey…?"

"Full on," Mercury responded with a nod. She glanced over at Mamoru and said, "She was very distressed to be separated from you, Mamoru-san. She's gone to find the Outers in a quest to save you all."

"It grows late," Saturn hissed, then glared at the frozen javelin in the Earth's Prince. Her head snapped back to the Messenger and she asked, "Will she have time?"

"I'm sure she'll …_make_, the time," Helios responded numbly. Because he could tell, it was too late already. The coloring around Mamoru's wound suggested he'd been impaled for at least a year! The Earth's core must be frozen, and it wouldn't take but mere moments for an Ice Age to snap life from the Earth. He wondered anxiously after Elysion, whose fate was, like Tartarus, tied closely to the Earth's…

But, as always, the Earth's fate was tied even more tightly, and maybe even directly, to the one they all sought now. "Yes, she'll make the time," Helios finished, then excused himself and exited the room.

.

_**Final Visit to the Moon**_

Upon seeing the destruction in Tokyo, Usagi first transported them all to Greece, again not sure about Ami's warning for her not to visit Tartarus, and willing to take that chance to rescue her loved ones. Because once again, thanks to Uranus, she was SURE she was not her mother, and should therefore be able to go to Tartarus without destroying it. —But to her utter horror, the Acheron was frozen solid, and all of Ammoudia deathly silent.

"Kitten…" Uranus started, worrying after the girl who was transporting them along without even transforming into Sailor Moon —a worrying fact which Uranus wasn't _even_ about to question now. But clearly something terrible was happening to the planet, and Usa was no dummy — something was tragically wrong with Mamoru. But Usagi was focused on the sheer glaze of ice covering the buildings of Ammoudia. "Usako, we need to fix this, but we can't do it from here…"

"Fine," Usagi snapped, then angrily transported them directly to the Time Door on the Moon.

"Oh this will be pretty," Neptune said, sighing, watching Usagi burst through the Time Door and yell for Setsuna.

Uranus saw the Guardian first and waved her over, but Usagi stormed up to Pluto and started questioning the fear-stricken Time Guardian about the Moon Queen.

Neptune pulled Pluto to the surface of the Moon to show her the planet while Usagi rambled on about things the Outers already knew.

Pluto shook Neptune away and turned to Usagi: "Why aren't you transformed, Princess? How do you breathe?"

"I haven't been able to transform ALL DAY!" Usagi yelled. "Again, what do you know of my origins? Somehow it's supposed to help rescue everyone…" she glanced in horror at the planet and hoped 'it' would help everyone. "What's happened?" She turned back to Pluto and begged, "What's going on?"

Pluto looked at Usagi carefully and said, "You can exist out here, on the surface."

Neptune said, "Well, she is the Moon Princess. Maybe there's an exception."

"She is human," Pluto snapped at Neptune, but reached out to touch Usagi's hair. It was then that she saw the faint glow of Usagi's signature Crescent Moon on the girl's forehead. She gently brushed Usagi's hair off her forehead…

"Wow," Uranus said. "Maybe she _is_ transformed."

Usagi grit her teeth together and threw up her arms, holding the scepter securely, but showing them her civilian clothes from her wonderful Greek getaway from Hell! "Don't THINK so! And," letting her arms down, "I really don't care. Setsuna, you have to tell me how to save them. _Where_ my mother came from." She bit her lip and pleaded silently with the Time Door Guardian.

"You were right that Chronos was older than Uranus, Usagi. However, I never knew him. Select descendants were chosen to guard the Time Door, but we had no special knowledge." She pressed her lips together, wishing for once she could know the ancient Chronos, even with his evil reputation, if only so she could help the distraught Princess. "All I know is that this journey you spoke of, to Tartarus, has been necessary in every timeline. Of the particulars, I can tell you nothing."

"No!" Usagi yelled. "Have you SEEN the Earth, Setsuna? It's a frozen ice ball, and all my friends — and Mamoru! — are in there!"

"Tartarus is like Elysion, Princess," Pluto said softly. "Somehow part of the Earth and Moon system, but not directly connected. Your friends are safe. For now."

Uranus rolled her eyes and threw up her hands silently… Setsuna just HAD to add the "for now" to what otherwise might have mollified the upset Princess!

"What. ever! Just tell me what to DO!" Usagi shrieked.

Pluto looked at Uranus, then back to Usagi sadly: "I'm afraid that if anyone were to be doing the telling, it would be _you_ telling _us_. We await your word, Princess. As we always have."

.

Usagi left the confines of the Time Door to walk the surface of the Moon, leaving the Outers free to return to the safety of the Time Door's inner sanctum.

"Where's Mercury when you need her?" she asked the black sky, but said nothing further.

The slithering black form made its way over the Asteroid Belt and landed on Mars; he could barely see her this far away.

Usagi crumpled, crying and looking at the darkness coming at her. Strange memories of eras long ago came upon her forcefully as the dark entity made its leap into the orbit of the Moon.

As the truth folded upon her, she reached for her forehead and tried to scratch off the lie: her Moon Princess emblem. Again, she had memories of Luna, who she now understood to be the real "Moon Princess" — or at least the deity installed by Hera; Luna _the Advisor_, who for reasons Usagi couldn't quite grasp, had stood aside and allowed someone else to remain in her position as the Moon Princess.

The dark force twisted about the Moon so that it completely surrounded it like a ring about Saturn. "Gotcha!" he boomed, smiling at his long-lost sister.

.


	15. Song of the Protogenoi

**an unsatisfying tale of separation.**

.

chapter 15.

_The dark force twisted about the Moon so that he completely surrounded it like a ring about Saturn. "Gotcha!" he boomed, smiling at his long-lost sister._

But he was confounded; whereas his beautiful, innocent twin sister used to laugh every time one of them were 'caught', she only looked forlorn just now. Brother drew his body into a form more like unto hers, and descended to the surface of the rock where she'd successfully hidden herself since the birth of his son Chronos — literally, since the beginning of Time. He asked gently, "Sister?"

Usagi lifted her head and …and old feelings tugged at her again. Spirit of her spirit; her brother. She felt pulled back into time by eons and eons, to a time when space was dark and void, and even fiery suns, much less orbiting planetary bodies, were few and far between. She inhaled sharply, eyes wide, seeing all these celestial bodies now as what they'd formerly been. And she almost …almost _smiled_.

The darkness dissipated and swirled around about his sister a few times, then reclined across the large crater into which his twin had collapsed. "It has been so long, I never thought to truly see you again!"

Usagi swallowed, her mind floating back and forth between ages; but it centered now on this age… "Do ..do you not know what you've _done_, Brother?" she asked, feeling at once nervous and yet at peace. She glimpsed her brother and closed her eyes tightly, as if waking from a dream she didn't want to end.

"I've _**found**_ you! —and it would usually be your turn, Sister, but it's been so long this time!" he said. And then he reached to his sister as if to figure out how she'd hidden, but she was in this minor lifeform and he didn't quite know how to do it. "We need to talk. —Starting with your hiding tactics!" he remonstrated. "I've been concerned about you! At times not knowing whether Rhea had hidden you, or you had hidden yourself... Do you know what I've had to do to flush you out?"

Usagi instantly burst into her ancient form, then spent ages looking at her star-filled limbs. She shook her head, and saw streamers of golden energy swim out towards the edge of the solar system. Energy soared through her, and she could see forever.

She turned to smile at her self-satisfied brother, who surely wanted to preen on about his latest success in finding her… "I feel like I've been drugged, Brother." She swallowed and looked about her, watching as her pink light spilled over the Moonscape which, suddenly, seemed so small. She inhaled sharply, thinking to make the Moon much bigger — as big as she remembered seeing it the first time!

Her brother sneered angrily, "Nothing like this has happened before, until Rhea tricked me into forming _Chronos_. —And that was the last time I saw you, if you'd recall." It was still a bitter pill for him to swallow… _Chronos_, his so-called _offspring_. The blight of his existence.

As if in afterthought, the girl bent over and set down a fully-made crystal palace, dollhouse-style, on the surface of the Moon. Just like it had been a few years ago, but …pink. And crystal. Her energies and thoughts flowed through it, as if to bring it alive with power! She now felt freed; at peace, especially as she looked at her wonderful brother. —Which drew a smile from her brother. She gleamed at him as the original memory came to her, although her mind was flooded with other memories as well, and so she asked, "Where is Rhea? —I don't think she liked me, you know."

Her brother sighed: "Rhea was slain for her deception, but… far too late, I'm afraid." His dark, billowy form rose up, dwarfing his long-lost twin sister. "All this…" and he referred to the systems of stars and planets as far as one could travel, "It can never be undone."

"Though you've tried," the girl said quietly, then fought to slip back into her earthly form. And then she was surprised to see that her human form now sported Eternal wings, like those of a bird; no, _an angel_. —She'd messed up, she suddenly realized, and grimaced at her wings: "No! This isn't my chosen form!"

Her unearthly companion chuckled at her tiny, humanoid figure and her reaction to it, as it was hard to take such a tiny, organic form and remake the pattern over and over. Tricky stuff that shouldn't be fooled with! He finally bellowed, "Caught in your own web, Sister?"

Usagi glared at the imposing form her brother had chosen. But then looked down at the Moonscape, sadly.

"Surely you don't plan to attempt to hide in this solar system again, Sister? _That_ planet's seen better days!" and he beckoned towards the ball of ice that this moon was orbiting.

Usagi breathed, "_Mamoru_…" and then turned to Chaos, and again let herself burst again into her ancient form and grasped at his hands anxiously: "Brother, I have a mate there, just as you had Rhea!"

"That's easily remedied!" her brother laughed. "Handle it as I handled Rhea! —but quickly, before it is too late!"

The entity who'd been Usagi kept her fiery sights pinned on her brother: "I don't want him '_remedied'_, Brother! I …I want _him_! And our friends! —I had so many important friends!"

Her brother sneered, "You can't believe a short-lived mortal could _love_ one of us, Sister! —Not the _real_ us, anyway! It couldn't even conceptualize such a thing!"

Usagi's pink cloud form plunked down in Mare Serenitatis, where now she remembered she'd first been caught up by a large, beautiful offspring of Chronos named Gaia who, in fun, it had seemed, had offered her a hiding place. She looked around — the Moon was in ruins now, except for the pink crystalline dollhouse castle she'd just planted.

It was true; Mamoru hadn't ever fallen in love with who she really was. He'd fallen in love with _her_, of course, but a _her_ stripped of memories; stripped even of basic knowledge of her origins. Which had seemed like such a good idea at one time…

She looked up and hollowly said, "I hid from myself, as well as from you, Brother." She sadly added, "Up until this very day, I'd believed I was of the Moon Kingdom. The Moon Princess!" She floated across the crater and looked at the pink crystalline palace she'd placed. "—I remember now, though. I'd made myself over again, but without our ancient memories—"

Her brother shuddered: "Wait! …I _remem__ber_ fighting that moon queen! Impossible!"

Recognition played across Usagi's form, just as it had across her brother's form. Coldness filled her as she remembered the attacks on the Moon Kingdom, and the hurt caused by …_Metallia_. She had known her brother was about to find her, but Gaia's plan was well in the works by then; her 'copy' born as Princess Serenity, and she would go on to protect the Earth and the Moon, and to enjoy the life made possible by that protection.

Chaos interrupted her thoughts: "I should have _known_ a mere Moon Queen couldn't have beaten my sun demon! —In fact, I _**knew**_ it!" He spun on her and pointed: "That's why I always returned to this system, Sister; her fight was so strong, and while her kingdom had perished, the Earth remained! —I was fooled by the Moon Queen's so-called 'death', but now? But now, everything comes clear! The 'Moon Queen' never died! YOU were that Moon Queen!"

"I had no recollection of that until just now, Brother," Usagi said plainly. She suddenly looked at her brother and anxiously added, "Brother, it's you I've been fighting all this time! And there's so much you don't know! Like, …there are lifeforms on these worlds now! Not like when we used to play!" She turned around to the blackness of space, smiled pink sparkles, and said, "Everything's teeming with life, brother!"

"You think I'm not aware of the vermin?" Chaos bellowed.

"Not vermin!" Usagi turned around excitedly and added, "Life that YOU made! You've …you've changed _everything_, brother!" Her heart filled with love as she realized her brother had given her the best gift imaginable. Ever! "You gave me everything, Brother! You made it all possible—!"

Chaos grew jealous of his sister's new diversion: "You speak of your mate."

Chaos' sister shook her head, but smiled: "Endymion, too, of course; but even without him, or even without _me_, there's so much to exist for now! So many reasons to live our lives! So many lifeforms, and possible exponential happiness! You've …you've made something _**greater**_ than ourselves, Brother! More than anything we could have imagined possible!"

"Pshaw," Chaos spouted. "I already had everything I wanted. And Rhea."

"But in all this time spent looking for me, Brother, you've missed the glories of your own progeny!" Usagi exclaimed, grasping her brother's arm and pulling him away from the Moon. "Don't you feel _any_ kinship to your offspring?" Usagi asked.

Chaos nearly spat, then grumbled, "The very curse of Rhea? —but you wouldn't understand, of course." His sister was to remain unstained; he was the stain, Chaos, the _anti-matter_ to his sister's curious _matter_. She saw pleasantness in almost everything. _H__er one primary flaw_, Chaos thought to himself.

Usagi smiled: "I have a daughter."

"A mortal," Chaos shrugged. "They hardly count."

Usagi's eyes shot open: "Oh they count, alright! They are our offspring; our legacy!"

Chaos shouted: "Legacy? That's what the limited worry about; but we, you and I, don't need legacy! We are **forever**!" He again grumbled that his wife, Rhea, seemed to be forever, as well, though she was nothing more than a nuisance who ruined his world with order and reason. He had slain her but good! —and yet he could swear sometimes he saw signs of her wretchedness…

"Immortality means nothing without love, Brother," Usagi said.

"Ah… you've caught wind of the putrid sayings of my great-offspring, after all!" Chaos smirked. "Which one was it? … Erotica? Inevitability—?"

"Eros," Usagi corrected with a giggle. She, for herself, had long forgotten the pantheons descended from Chaos; but her spirit was awakening vividly in her now, and was supplying her with every name in the pantheons, both the real ones she'd witnessed as Queen Serenity, and the fake ones imagined by the peoples of Terra. In this case, Eros was a real offspring of Chaos. Then her eyes brightened and she said, "Don't you know that everything I desire is an offspring of yours?"

"You got sucked in," Chaos said. "We can remedy that, though!" Hopefully, he thought. "If we find and take out Chronos, maybe some of this, at least, will unravel—"

A new Usagi, full of years and wisdom, smiled at her long-lost brother: "Chronos is truly gone, but what you bred didn't go with him! You can't put that genie back in its bottle!"

"Oh very well," Chaos pouted. Then, after a few moments of quiet, brightened up: "So tell me of this offspring of yours, Cosmos," He plucked an asteroid from the Belt and sniffed it before tossing it at the large target of Jupiter. He loved throwing things at gas planets; the explosions were delightful! "—she must be magnificent, to be your offspring!" _Unlike the slugs he had bred._

Cosmos frowned: "She is small of mind; mortal. —_Wonderful._" Then she sneered at her brother as she made another realization: "The very one you brainwashed into turning against me!"

"That one. —good times those!" Chaos said. "I was trying to flush you out; threaten the planet on which I believed you were hiding!" He shrugged and added, quietly, 'It obviously worked.'

Cosmos grew quiet. Chaos grunted and said, "You know these worlds are… _imaginary_, Cosmos. Unsustainable! You've brainwashed yourself to imagine otherwise, but these …mere _wisps_ of _life_, they're nothing but annoyances that try to destroy us!" Beat. "You must let them go—"

"I CAN'T!" Cosmos argued, now spinning away from the large, impeding Chaos form with her ever-growing, brilliant Cosmos form. "They're as real to me as you are, and …and I love that life!" She spun to face him and said, "And I love that **you** made those lives! We did something, Chaos! We finally DID something besides playing games and making galaxies that spiraled and disappeared… And it's something to be proud of!"

"Something I _detest_," Chaos growled at the large, pink apparition before him, with the tell-tail golden streamers that usually let him find her quite easily. —Until Rhea polluted the universe with _offspring_.

"You adored playing games with me for eons!" Cosmos charged. "But I'm different now; I want more than hide-and-seek! And you should TOO! Chaos, it's time to grow up!" And with that, she recognized herself, and bent herself back into her human form. —her almost-human form, now snagged up permanently with wings. But still she felt at complete peace as she stared at the frozen Earth.

Chaos railed at the idea: "I've spent all this time trying to recover you, only to be spurned? Aww hell no! If I get rid of that," and he pointed at the ball of ice that had been Gaia's home planet, "you won't have them to cling to!"

Usagi pointed at the Earth calmly and asked, "When did you do this?"

Chaos laughed at the little sprite his sister had transformed into: "The last time we met in battle—"

Usagi shook her head and giggled, "No; I talked Galaxia down, Brother! She didn't do this!"

"Ah yes," Chaos smiled, then laughed raucously: "But as I was once again being ejected from this system, and all the lights were leaving the Cauldron, I found the one marked as the Prince of the Earth, and I threw my Ice Javelin in through his soul, piercing his planet that had been the bane of my soul for so long!" Beat. "—All to flush you out. And it worked." And he was glad.

Usagi turned on the large black cloud of her brother and said, "That's why Mamoru is sick, then." The reason they had to journey to the hiding place. She paced the Moon and then, as reality hit her, she fell to her knees: "Then the Journey to heal Mamoru has failed!" She looked up at the frozen Earth again and screamed, "Why? Why would you do that?"

"To get my sister back," Chaos murmured, smiling at both his newly-won sister, and his long-sought revenge on the planet. "I take it that was your mate, then?" …of course, _**now**_ he remembered a stupid, tawdry tale of one such mortal asking for immortality to be with the Moon Princess.

"I want them back," Usagi stated, standing up and staring into the great abyss of her brother.

"But you're all I have! You're my sister!" Chaos complained loudly.

"Come WITH me then!" she insisted, …but even as she thought of it, she knew that he wouldn't like Earth. Even though it had come into existence _through_ him! She sighed in defeat, but then said, "I want more time with them, then. _Unimpeded_ time!"

.

_**Song of the Protogenoi**_

Chaos contemplated deeply. Internally, in the ancient tongue that only Cosmos could hear:

RHEA MADE THESE WORLDS, I didn't.  
>But I had let them continue<br>Because it shut her up.  
>RHEA WAS AN EVIL fitting in with neither of us;<br>where she sprouted from, is still a mystery to me;  
>I used to imagine she was a thought of yours, and<br>didn't want to displease my Sister…

.

Usagi immediately meditated her reply to her dear brother:

Rhea was a gift we happened upon,  
>truly unique in our world! MEANT TO BE!<br>Without her, you'd have no mate;  
>We'd have no WORLDS, BROTHER!<br>And I love you so, I wanted a mate for you.

.

Chaos watched his tiny, mortal-coiled Sister and angrily replied:

O WHAT A TERRIBLE THING TO FIND YOUR WIFE  
>HATES YOU AND EVERYTHING YOU HOLD DEAR!<br>Chronus, the first, spun our worlds into  
>a pattern — before I could find you next!<br>BUT AT LEAST HE TOOK RHEA FROM MY ARMS  
>FOR WHICH I WAS MUCH THANKFUL!<br>And their progeny included Ouranus,  
>who wasn't unpleasant like Rhea and Chronus and the rest—<p>

But he was CAUGHT UP BY GAIA! A lesser progeny  
>of a ball of dirt who deemed hers greater than the others—<br>because it had captured a moon!

The same Gaia who trapped you as well!  
>But while you must think much of her, imagine also<br>HER progeny, WHO DESTROYED her world  
>and turned on OURANUS AND CAST HIM<br>TO A HIDING PLACE — was it one of yours?

The same hiding place, I surmise, that was  
>USURPED BY GAIA for her own uses!<p>

I lament how I should have stopped Gaia, long ago,  
>or even after Ouranus' ill fate!<p>

Except one SPRANG FROM THE REMAINS OF OURANUS  
>Who put them all to the test and finally did<br>Something WORTHY of an offspring — Cronus!  
>When he PUT OUT THE BLIGHT of his own making<br>As I ought to have done, and oft tried to remedy!

This one so terrible, I suspected she was RHEA!  
>Those works speak wholly of Rhea, the bane of my existence.<p>

AND I EXPECTED CRONUS TO DELIVER ME OF EARTH  
>To fully destroy Gaia's hateful abode<br>But even he was hidden from me, or put to death

.

Usagi interrupted his long tirade with a laugh:

Do you like nothing of your offspring, my Brother?  
>Cronus was like Rhea indeed!<br>You should have gotten on well with them if you would  
>BUT TRY to see them and not kill them all off!<p>

.

Chaos snapped:

I suspect that you've hidden them both in a lair;  
>Even though both would hate you,<br>You never could see the evil in those types!

BUT FOR NOW OUR SONG IS OVER, COSMOS  
>as I agree to your return to your fantasy world<br>THOUGH I REQUEST YOU THINK ON THIS INSIDIOUS JOURNEY  
>It gains you nothing but hurt and misery!<br>ASK OURANUS, EVEN CRONUS, HOW ONE'S PROGENY TREATS YOU!  
>Or merely ask me, Sister, of Rhea's betrayals!<br>HOWEVER, GO; have your time unimpeded.  
>Live the life of the wretched mortal granted powers;<br>SEE HOW THAT WORKS FOR YOU!

.

She gave her brother no reply this time; just a warm smile.

So Chaos spun up into a massively impressive form, so he could exit dramatically, and he said:

BUT ONLY FOR A TIME. FOR ALL GOOD THINGS MUST COME TO AN END  
>as I so bitterly learned when I lost you last.<br>LET THESE PEOPLES LIVE A SUPERNATURAL LIFETIME, EONS as far as I'm concerned  
>BUT THEN THEY GO ON THEIR WAY and we can return to our usual fare. <strong>Goodbye, Cosmos.<strong>

.

He bowed to leave, but Cosmos shook her head and said, "Brother, I'm going to need your assistance."


	16. Interregnum

**an unsatisfying tale of separation.**

.

chapter 16.

**A hundred billion years ago, and one day.**

"Where is he now," the cheerful blonde wondered, leaping above the stones her brother had just tossed in her path. She stumbled directly into one, and it fell and spun and finally exploded into a fierce rectangular galaxy.

Her brother was hidden, but watching her from afar. '_How could he not watch her; she'd never find him, but her quest was so__ much fun to behold!_' he thought fondly. She was truly the brightest part of his existence in these worlds that they simultaneously created and destroyed!

"Caught ya!" his sister announced, scaring him from behind. She rested on the world behind which he stood, gleaming at him in triumph. "Wanna chase _me_ now?"

And on and on it went; Chaos hadn't even known where it had begun anymore. He wondered if he would ever grow bored of it, but his heart always told him otherwise. And when they rested, they rested together on whatever monstrosity he had torn apart, that she had reinvigorated; she'd giggle that he couldn't ever win!

"You might grow tired too one day, my dear sister," Chaos said.

Then his mate had called. How that being could be jealous of his escapades with his sister he would never fathom, but it surely griped him something fierce.

His sister beamed at him playfully and said, "I'm leaving now; but I bet I will catchya after your mating!" She jumped up and stared at him, her long twin hair streamers billowing through the galaxies.

He hoped it wasn't incestuous to hope she would capture him… but in the meantime, he had a mate with which to deal. An overbearing battle-axe if there ever was one.

.

Chaos was not amused; in the short course of space from his sister to his mate, the unbearable woman had bred him a conglomeration of herself and him, and everything had changed instantly. It had taken his breath away; his very soul…

"You gave me TIME?" the angry Chaos demanded of his mate, who merely giggled and shooed him off, away to chase his sister some more. Only now, there wouldn't be endless days of chasing his sister: his new offspring, Chronos, had brought an end to 'endless'!

And in no time, pun intended, before could leave to go find his sister, Chronos had issued forth further offspring, and the world became completely foreign to Chaos. It was no longer evenly occupied with various matter and energies that he could easily control. Now, those galaxies he'd made _in jest_ had grown huge and gathered everything to themselves, leaving vast expanses of emptiness that weren't easy for him to traverse. And to his horror, these new 'super-galaxies' no longer dissipated, but had become stable. And in their stability, they seemed to be governed by new rules that Chaos wasn't familiar with.

Everything had slowed and become ordered.

Everything had changed.

And so he angrily went forth to destroy that which he had created, both his offspring and these damned galaxies, and hopefully to find his sister along the way. But then he found another change; the most disturbing one yet. His sister was no longer the only light in the their worlds! There were now _many_ of them, though none as large as hers, and most seemed connected somehow to these new galaxies. And they were further connected to new energy masses, and controlling the matter round about them! As unconscionable the idea was, Chaos realized these things, now lit with light not unlike his sister's, were _alive._

His own creation was forging itself as if to become like him!

Rhea suggested that his sister had merely devised a new strategy in her attempt to hide from him, and that these changes weren't all, or even mostly, from Chronos. She also pointed out that if that were so, that his precious sister now ruled their playground and _he would never find her_ unless she _wanted_ to be found!

But Chaos knew his sister wouldn't abandon him, and considered that Rhea's evil creation might have somehow changed his sister; maybe even damaged her. And so he persevered, seeking his sister throughout the new worlds —all the while grumbling that it just wasn't natural, _all_ these brilliant lights, and the galaxies having order, and somehow the two combining to form a new kind of lifeform, and so radically altering the world that had been his and his sister's alone! He KNEW his sister had loved their world as much as he had!

As the ages passed, he called to her, but she never responded, and he finally wondered if his mate hadn't somehow _killed_ his sister to make these other entities and their offspring. So Chaos returned to his mate for one last time. He might have let his mate have her way with his world, had she but produced his sister, but she'd mocked him mercilessly instead. He killed his mate then, to the grief of his offspring.

And then of the offspring he could detect, he killed them, too. He could still do what he'd always done, even under the new world order, so he grabbed off legs of the galaxies and hurled them aimlessly through space. He introduced destruction wherever he found order. And he intended to suss out his sister's whereabouts no matter how many lights he had to extinguish to find the true one. He wanted his world back again, Cosmos, the way it had always been before the blight of his offspring.

**.**

Cosmos had been propelled down through many galaxies, through vast, empty spaces which grew even more vast as the galaxies collected together. And she finally came into one of her spirals that hadn't yet dissipated. In fact, it had caught up more galaxies and expanded itself — a very rare thing, and most impressive. She knew Brother would love the mystery of it, and would want to study it before dissipating it. And it made her happy.

She let her consciousness propel her almost all the way in through this spiral, and she slowed, taking time to admire how different this galaxy's core was from all the others she'd seen. It was filled with something not unlike souls, such as her own, and she'd never seen other souls like this! She attempted to converse with them, but as she did so they started disappearing. So she quickly made a collector to scoop up these lights out of the warm core of the galaxy itself, and set the cauldron at the center of the spiral, that they would all be spared as she watched them. Then the many souls then stopped blinking out, and if they disappeared into the container, they would soon come out again.

Yet she would not converse with them; it seemed they had suffered when she tried.

But she was ecstatic there were other souls, and she determined make herself more like them to investigate them better —but first she'd have to take herself out of the galaxy so as not to harm to its delicate structure. When she thought she was clear of the galaxy, she moved to warp away from it, but instead warped right into yet another, almost hidden arm at the very extreme of this galaxy. She immediately dispersed herself to spare the galaxy's tiny arm, and that's when she saw all the miniscule souls gathered around an even tinier, easily overlooked, system of star and planets. Wide-eyed, she watched the result of her brother's offspring do things she'd never imagine souls doing before: they'd grown organic shells, each different from one another, and were somehow existing in bodies that were smaller than their souls!

They emanated light and color; and they interacted as easily as she and Brother ever had.

She compacted herself greatly and tried to gather some of the new organic materials over her that she might appear like them and be recognized, but they didn't notice her. After much study, as the system grew and grew, she finally discovered the sequencing of matter they used to generate these shells, and set down on one of the tiny worlds near the star.

And THAT'S when she detected a new kind of world, unlike any other she'd ever seen: a green and blue world, with another world orbiting it yet, that was creating its own tiny souls as she watched. It took her breath away.

And as she watched, the brightest light on the green and blue world move off of Terra to visit its moon. It was pure gold, and simply irresistible.

Cosmos instantly leaped to the moon and stared, and from within the golden aura, a woman was staring back at her with fear. So Cosmos said, "HELLO!" —and belatedly realized she was yet too big for these worlds, as her mere breath had moved the moon and felled the structures thereon. She felt terrible about her inadvertent destruction of this woman's abodes.

But the woman got up even as Cosmos apologetically let go of her organic form. Cosmos heard the woman call to her: "I am Gaia! Are …are you a shape-shifter?"

Cosmos didn't understand the woman's question; she re-made her sequencing, this time even smaller than before, and floated carefully back down to the Moon to look at her, but the woman ran. Cosmos beamed, thinking this woman was hiding from her.

But Gaia came back out, peering around a felled building, and finally smiled at her.

.

Gaia had made **bank**. Her brethren from other star systems, as well as her mate, had insisted she stop looting other worlds of strong, bright star seeds to bring to Earth, even though there'd been a terrible entity reportedly snuffing out entire planets mercilessly. So she'd been sworn to limit her Titans to only the ones she already had, plus the one who she'd fairly traded for but hadn't yet come to Earth. She'd hoped to make the most of her Titans, but grew to know that even with the future addition of Hyperion, the Earth would be limited without another big, badass star seed.

And here her ass was, on her own, and free for the taking even by the strict galaxy rules she'd been made to abide by.

Sure, Gaia been scared upon first witnessing the terrifying entity far away in space, thinking that _this_ might be the rumored planet-buster. But as she was the Earth's progenitor and guardian, she'd immediately gone to the Moon to assess the situation. And she'd hoped that, if nothing else, her Golden Crystal might lure even the worst enemy from the Earth, and maybe be powerful enough to help her hide from it forever.

But then the entity had changed from a bright, cloud-like aura with frightening, planet-sized eyes into a physical being, then disappeared far away into the atmosphere of Venus. And then she'd come to the Moon itself.

She'd appeared miles away, but was still visible as a giant, as big as any Titan Gaia had brought to Earth, and with wings to carry her, and extraordinarily long ponytails that looked like the Milky Way itself. But before Gaia decided how best to make first contact with this extraordinary being, she'd made a deafening sound which had, in Gaia's scariest moment ever, SHAKEN the entire Moon. Gaia fell hard, and then scrambled to safety behind some rubble, but soon realized the goddess had spoken a greeting. Visibly shaking, the Earth goddess forced herself to stand up and go back out to speak to the visitor, with as wide a smile as she could manage.

The being had almost immediately disappeared — definitely showing signs of being a legendary shape-shifter. But Gaia stood her ground and yelled out her own greeting into space. And at that moment, the shape-shifter reappeared, almost immediately before her. Gaia noted that while she still had the golden hair and wings, she was no longer a giant, but instead the size of a human woman — even a little smaller than Gaia.

Gaia swallowed. A magical being who was trying to fit in. —And who was smiling with excitement.

But who didn't seem to have a name, and couldn't name her father, either.

However, she was able to communicate how happy and content she was to see these beautiful souls and the entire solar system, 'hidden at the edge of the world'. And several other things that seemed nonsensical to Gaia, but that was okay because by that time, Gaia had decided that she had to have this strange, powerful being to become part of her pantheon — one of the Titans! With her incredible luminosity and strange but clearly powerful abilities, such a one could only help guarantee the beauty and strength of Earth would continue to grow and never be annihilated.

If only Gaia could think of a way to keep her here.

First that was first: as the entity had claimed no name, Gaia had christened her 'Serenity', due to her apparent lack of fear and joyful nature. And Serenity didn't seem to mind, and indeed responded to the name. But suddenly Serenity started making sweeping gestures and pointed at every end of the universe, as if describing something very important, but which made no sense to Gaia… until Serenity finally communicated that she was _hiding_. Or _needed to hide_. _Something._ Gaia's heart raced as this opportunity smacked her upside the head, and the Earth goddess offered Serenity asylum. —A home. A place. Even the whole Moon to govern, if that's what Serenity wished!

Serenity hadn't stayed that day, again for reasons that Gaia didn't understand, but Gaia knew she would return. And indeed, Serenity soon returned! Only not alone, and she needed a favor this time. Finally Gaia understood that Serenity wanted to the visitor she'd brought, as well as herself. And this other one was injured, injured to death as far as Gaia could see, but Serenity was insistent that this visitor must survive, and be tucked away safely for a while.

Gaia energized the full power of the Golden Crystal, and sure enough found a light yet living within the slab of flesh Serenity had called 'friend'. Gaia smiled softly and said, "I can heal her—"

"She can't be found!" Serenity insisted, suddenly very serious.

And for this one to be dead serious, Gaia knew it was a pretty big deal.

So she thought on the matter carefully, and after several days of respite, Gaia fashioned the unnamed entity into her own son, Cronus, and told Serenity, "See how the mother of the planet is now the mother of your friend!"

And then Gaia named her price, which fortunately hadn't seemed to offend Serenity in the least, since it still involved hiding. Gaia never learned exactly what Serenity was hiding from, much less 'her son' Cronus, although she felt Serenity had tried to describe it plenty. But it didn't bother Gaia then; she knew that having Serenity's brilliant star seed attached to the Earth would guarantee the Earth forever.

.

Gaia tucked Serenity into Hyperion's family, alongside his twins, and allowed them to grow up in another part of the galaxy until they were of age to come to Earth, and Serenity might be accepted as one of Hyperion's own.

Unfortunately in the meantime, Cronus grew, and Gaia got a taste of why someone might want to hunt down and slaughter him. Cronus hacked down his 'father' Ouranus, and sent him spiraling to the underworld, that he alone might reign over the Titans. Gaia grew fearful of her son, but bided her time until Serenity could come, because Cronus knew his origins, and laughed at the concept of being Ouranus' offspring. So Cronus took the reins of power and led the Titans; and happily imbibed in everything (and everyone) the Earth had to offer.

It was with great relief that Gaia welcomed Hyperion's brood many years later. Gaia's Titans had always been magnificent, but when Hyperion's clan came, the whole Earth changed. Hyperion became king of the East and was everything she'd ever hoped for from him. And then Eos came, and she brought the morning. Helios brought the sunlight for beautiful days. And yet for all that, Serenity came and brought the Earth its second light — the Moon — which was made bigger and brighter than ever before, and brought much happiness and stability to the Earth it shined on.

And it seemed Serenity was happy to just exist without fetters as the Moon goddess.

And nobody was the wiser, because Serenity was successfully passed her off as Hyperion's offspring. And though Serenity quickly showed her unique brilliance, and maybe some thought of her as a definite oddball, she became too popular and too well-loved for anyone to openly question.

And Gaia was her friend.

Gaia would often confer with the much older entity, although Serenity still couldn't communicate her deepest desires and thoughts in a way that Gaia or anyone else could understand. After many various attempts at everything from spoken word to artistic paintings, Gaia came to understand that Serenity's experiences were so foreign that there weren't yet ways to convey such things. And that's when it occurred to Gaia that Serenity might be one of the Ancients.

But then, to Gaia's utter horror, Serenity had gotten across a thing that unsettled Gaia, and which Gaia hoped was a misunderstanding: Serenity said she'd MADE Tartarus to hide Cronus, and now to house any of the 'lights' (as Serenity called star seeds) who weren't welcome in this star system. Like Ouranus, who'd been cast to Tartarus by Cronus himself. Because Serenity didn't want to lose even one of these 'lights'.

Gaia would have asked Cronus then about his and Serenity's origins, except Cronus had become a thoroughly detestable creature; fearsome, and wholly evil. Cronus didn't even seem to like Serenity, but Gaia knew Serenity protected Cronus as her own offspring, and the Moon Queen seemed blind to the evil of Cronus. So Gaia found herself in a conundrum, wondering how such a being like Serenity could even exist in the same space as Cronus — they were as opposite as two creatures could be! And it made her question everything, that Serenity didn't seem to recognized 'evil'.

Fortunately, Cronus' days became numbered by his own doing, and Gaia happily welcomed in his son Zeus and the Olympians if it meant Cronus would be cast down to Tartarus. By that time, Gaia, while still fond of Serenity, had also wondered what exactly she'd let into her world, and what might happen if Serenity ever got angry. It was at this juncture that Gaia approached Serenity of the Moon Kingdom with word that Zeus had _not_ been killed by Cronus, and that Zeus intended to overthrow his father.

If Serenity were going to destroy them all, Gaia figured THAT would be the time.

However Serenity wasn't surprised at all — she'd made Tartarus to hide Cronus, after all, and wished Gaia the best of luck.

.

Much later, Gaia looked back on that time and wondered why she hadn't asked Serenity to just leave and take that damned Cronus with her. Because soon after the fall of Cronus, Serenity had started showing signs of being even more powerful than a Tartarus-builder, which was fearsome enough on its own. Serenity's spirit was always kind, even to a fault, but her powers were so great that Gaia started having to cover up for the Moon Queen. For one, Serenity had decided to reproduce herself, and brought forth a younger Serenity and called her the Moon Princess.

And the mortals of Earth were already terrified enough without their Olympians, but to see an ancient Titan goddess make a child without a father? They grew fearful. So Gaia had let it be known, through rumor and innuendo, that Serenity wasn't as pure as people might have believed. But those rumors got to Hyperion's ears, and Eos had called Gaia out on that — suggesting that their daughter and sister was not as pure as originally believed was heresy! But Serenity herself had calmed her Titan family down, telling them what she'd done to bring forth the younger Serenity.

Not that any of them understood what Serenity had said: she'd literally talked about sequencing invisible particles and such. But her own family started understanding that Serenity couldn't be of them, and Hyperion grew fearful of her. And Gaia couldn't allay their fears. Still, she'd counted it a victory that the question of Serenity's daughter disappeared, and the Titans in Elysion were unlikely to mention it ever again, as they no longer believed Serenity had anything to do with them.

And then a sun demon had started threatening the Earth. And Serenity responded in a way that was strictly taboo: she made new powers that could counter the sun demon, and not by reproduction or looting. The Moon Queen had summoned Gaia and told her of this change, thinking to put Gaia at ease about this sun demon. However, what Gaia saw had been truly impossible, even more so than making a child out of your own self, for Serenity had taken some of the brightest star seed holders left in the solar system, women all, and supplanted in them the powers of the Olympians in Tartarus. "To make the people of Terra feel confident again."

What had been done couldn't be undone, but Gaia convinced Serenity to hide such beings from the mortals. And yet somehow, word of these new powers got to the original Olympians in Tartarus, and they grew angry at Serenity. They were yet fearful of her, but angry at her all the same.

And such was the state of matters when a young mortal of Earth journeyed to Tartarus to beg a favor of Zeus.

.

"She'll be found out!" Helios argued with the magnanimous Gaia at his temple in Elysion.

"I agree, but it's too late," Gaia said softly. "Your mortal Endymion has already made a request of the deities, and they _heard_ him!"

"I'm sure they did," Helios snarled.

"You don't understand," Gaia said patiently to the one she'd come to trust the most. "The younger Serenity will certainly be satisfied with this mortal's proposal, because she's been gazing after him with googly-eyes nonstop for years! —And now, they'll _have_ their eternity!"

"But…" Helios stammered, "_**Why?**_ The Olympians never grant such requests without a high price!" —And then it hit him. "Do they know Serenity isn't really _my sister_?"

"After a fashion, I'd presume," Gaia said. "Like you, they started suspecting her of being 'something else' some time ago. But either way, what's done is done. The young Serenity is innocent of all this. —Though I'd hardly say the same of our Moon Queen Serenity."

Helios cleared his throat and defended his sister: "Serenity has done a great job in stabilizing this system." Indeed, Helios was quite fond of his _sister_, especially given Gaia's assurance that her placement as the Moon Queen had allowed the rest of them to exist — a thing Gaia seemed more and more likely to forget. Helios wasn't too privy on the inner workings of the Ancients, which is what he assumed his sister was, but it was known that the Ancients didn't appreciate too many questions, and if pushed, could display powers beyond anything the new generations could imagine. He counted themselves lucky that Gaia had happened upon a gentle, kind Ancient.

Gaia said, "But Serenity's _stable kingdom_ is exactly what has attracted attention to this region of the galaxy." And while this planet was hers, she also knew that it had become such a powerful force because of its kinship with its unique Moon. Even so, this solar system might have been overlooked longer, but Endymion being granted immortality would draw even more attention. And not the kind of attention she desired.

Finally, Gaia said, "Helios, we're screwed."

Helios said, "You can't know that!"

But Gaia retorted, "Helios, I think they want her back. —the ones I hid her from. And the entities I'm speaking of? They make me look like an infant."

Helios couldn't believe such a thing! What could be older than… he'd learned of the ancient Gaia at his first dawning. "But …we just assumed you were among the First, as powerful as…" Helios whispered: "_An Ancient!_ —How else might you have found and captured a being such as my sister?"

Gaia shook her head. "Oh Helios, don't be a drip. You KNOW there's more out there than us. And Serenity wasn't exactly 'captured'; she came willingly, because she was hiding."

"From WHAT?" Helios asked.

Gaia rolled her eyes and shrugged. "It really doesn't matter now, and I could never understand what she explained of them, anyway."

And then she sighed. Gaia finally said, "Helios, I've made a decision. It's what must be, since I'm the one who brought her to Earth to begin with."

"Which was a GOOD thing!" Helios responded.

Gaia nodded, but with the weight of the world on her shoulders. Surely they'd seen other solar systems thrive and die; that was the reason she started 'looting' strong souls from other systems to begin with! Survival of the fittest. And she LOVED her planet, and was proud at how long it had thrived, and might continue to thrive. But the Fates, if they truly existed, had altered the course Gaia had intended to take. It would be irresponsible of her to fight what was as plain as the nose on her face.

She pressed her lips tighter and said, "Since this mortal took on this responsibility—"

"In a rash act of passion!" Helios interrupted. "—He can't possibly love the young Serenity! We don't even know what 'she' is! She has no father—!"

Gaia shrugged: "What's done is done, Helios. While Zeus has given this Endymion immortality, he didn't given him any real power—"

"Should a rash-thinking mortal like that have any real power?" Helios asked.

Gaia smiled: "This mortal might not understand what he's taken on, but he _has_ taken it on; in his desire to sacrifice his waking hours just to please Serenity, he's shown a willingness to protect this bond between our planet and its moon."

"He's shown he has a healthy libido! Gaia, you can't possibly believe he has the planet's well-being at heart!"

But Helios heard the progenitor of Earth out, though he never questioned exactly what ancient beings like Gaia and Ouranus might themselves call 'ancient', nor why Gaia was so sure that Endymion's rash action had brought destruction upon them. Still, he followed her instructions to the letter, and took her essence — all that remained of her, including her inherent powers — and supplanted it in Elysion for safe keeping. He was now alone, save for the few attendants who'd been kicked from the Pantheon like he'd been. The rest of the Titans had long since migrated deeper into Elysion, and Gaia had been his only friend. As such, he worked his fingers to the bone to do as she'd requested: he started weaving the spirit of the earth, Gaia's Golden Crystal, into the soul of the young upstart who'd merely proposed to his near-daughter, the Moon Princess. Thus gaining, as Gaia had literally bet her life on, an eternal connection between the Earth and the Moon —and a good reason for the Moon Princess to stay in this system long after her mother might leave.

.

**Present Day.**

Hades struggled with the heavy gate overhead, but finally got it loosened. Pressing up with all his might, he ordered the other to quickly climb out.

Luna led the way, and as soon as her body left the Gate of Tartarus and fell onto the Moon, she returned to being a feline. "YES!" Luna yelped, ignoring the cold and rolling on the ground, enjoying every second of having her body back.

Artemis plopped onto the surface beside her: "A little warning next time?"

Luna had been holding Artemis throughout the arduous climb, but had been so excited about leaving Hell that she was afraid she'd forgotten about Artemis. As the others appeared beside them, Luna whispered, "My apologies, Artemis, but you weren't stuck in another body for what felt like weeks!"

"It was months," Tuxedo Kamen snarled as he found his footing and stood to brush the dust of the surface from his suit.

"We KNOW, Tuxedo Kamen." Mars snapped, trying to warm her limbs.

Sailor Mercury brightened and said, "We made it! I knew we'd make it!" And she did know it; the winding passageways through the bottom of Tartarus and onto various outposts, including the Moon, had been inscribed in the maps she'd found when she last saw Usagi —right here on the Moon! But she was still happy to have led her first modern-era expedition so successfully. With help from Hades, of course.

"Whoopie," Mars growled. She'd been none-too-pleased with the way they were expelled through the bottom of Tartarus and onto the surface of the Moon. And truth be told, their journey wasn't even halfway over—

"Woah," Sailor Jupiter said as she gained her legs. The first sight she saw was their frozen home planet, and though they'd all been expecting it, the seeing was something else entirely.

But Mamoru didn't give a crap about the Earth; he glared over the Moon's surface to get his bearings, then stormed off with a mission to find Usagi. Mercury was quickly behind him, and had to run to keep up as he made way to the new, giant, pink glistening castle about twenty miles hence. Before she could remark that the structure was new since she'd last been here, Mamoru was already calling out Usagi's name, although the lack of atmosphere swallowed most of the sound.

Helios was more than disturbed that the Prince had felt more need to find his woman than to mourn his planet. He remarked to Sailor Venus, "The prince has his priorities all wrong."

Venus cocked an eyebrow and said, "No, Helios, he's got his priorities exactly right."

Jupiter agreed wholeheartedly, "Yeah, it's not like we're getting the planet back without Usa, Helios." She smiled tightly and pointed out, "We're a team. And we can't do much with our Princess missing."

.

Mamoru entered the castle and was shocked to see Haruka relaxing on sofa inside, along with who _his __brain_ said was Michiru, but who he still thought of as the deranged Poseidon they'd been spending way too much time with in Tartarus.

Haruka stood and smiled: "Setsuna told us to expect you, but—"

"Where's Usagi?" he asked, sprinting through the room and opening doors, looking for her.

Mercury winced at the Outers and whispered, "Ice Stick through his soul… he's a bit…?" She shrugged: "_Confused_."

Haruka announced, "Usagi left us here with Setsuna before the, uh, '_accident'_, Chiba." She went to the wall-sized window facing the planet and said, "I believe she's trying to do something to help the people under the ice right now."

Tuxedo Kamen winced, but then nodded and said, "Fine. I'll go there, then—"

"You can't go there!" Michiru argued. "Not in your condition!" She grabbed his hand gently and pulled him over to the sofa, knowing Haruka was getting him some coffee; anything to settle him down. They hadn't been sure about what had happened to cause this journey, but Setsuna had said that the prince couldn't be too well if the Earth was in its current condition, and that they should work to keep him and the Inner Senshi strong; clear-thinking.

So Michiru added cheerfully, "She'll be back soon, though; don't you worry. She has a single-minded desire to help you and the planet."

Mamoru sat for what seemed like days, very cold and confused, but sipping the always-proffered coffee. His vision had grown blurry and dark, and he feared he'd never know comfort again. He experienced that the Senshi were draping blankets over him, leaving him alone for a spell, and then putting pillows beneath his head …but he couldn't bring himself out of his soul stupor. He was cold; his throat was tight. He barely remembered his own name. But he kept focused on his Usako, and her bouncy hair streamers tied up into those odangos… he'd just seen her days ago, at that little Greek village, before Helios took her from him. And then everything had gone wrong, and the Gatekeeper had told them that months of Earth time had passed. He'd never admit it out loud, but he'd lost hope. He silently said his goodbyes to his Usako.

.

Luna had scoured the quickly-erected palace, which was, in fact, far more than just a pretty glass covering of old Moon Kingdom ruins. Oh no, somehow Usagi had erected the entire structure, and filled it with furniture, heat, pressure, and all the luxuries of life, in an inhumanly short amount of time.

As the days passed in the palace, and Chiba slumbered with his fatal wound gaping into reality more, the advisors of the old Moon Kingdom had opted to play their cards close to their chests, as the Outers seemed to be doing anyway.

"There are even notes in these drawers, Luna," Artemis whispered to her. "In a script from the Moon Kingdom days. Usagi couldn't know that script."

"She most certainly could, Artemis," Luna responded. "And you know it as well as I do." She shivered involuntarily and said, "The girls are becoming aware of the sheer impossibility of a task such as this."

"Minako hasn't said a thing to me," Artemis puffed up proudly.

"She wouldn't; she's Usagi's right-hand, and she's fully aware of that," Luna said. "But after what we saw during our time in Tartarus, I think it's safe to say that the building materials are too similar—"

"You think she's truly an Ancient, then?" Artemis chuckled. "Awakened now? —oh, Usagi would be impossible to live with!"

"No, Artemis," Luna sighed, frustrated that everything had to be spelled out to him.

Artemis responded dryly, "Well of course we know that somebody quite powerful was the sponsor of the Queen and her daughter."

"I doubt they were 'sponsored' at all, Artemis," Luna hissed quietly. "For her to be able to build this? And you know Usa as well as I do, I'd venture; can you imagine anything that would keep her away from Tartarus?"

"Oh goodness, not this Protogenoi stuff again, Luna!" Artemis complained.

"Artemis, even Cronus suggested she was …special," Luna snipped. "And given what we see here, with the Palace…?"

Artemis was uncomfortable with the subject matter. He shook his head, "But we both saw the future, Luna; Usagi remains tied to this planet and her family for a thousand years! —yes, the Neo-Queen was extraordinarily powerful, but …well, we shouldn't conjecture such things."

"Hmmph," Luna snorted. "'As far as I'm concerned, if there were ever a question before, it's been answered now_."_

.

Meanwhile, Makato and Rei had detransformed and found a room for the 'Inners' to relax in. "Do you feel different, Rei?"

"You mean sad about being alone in the universe?" Rei asked sullenly. Then shrugged: "My mind is reeling, actually. I'm sad about Grandpa and Yuuichirou, but I'm also …still so confused about Mamoru's journey."

That's not at all what Makato had been asking her, but she nodded her head and said, "Yeah…. Anyway, I faced freakin ZEUS on that journey!"

"You ARE freaking Zeus, you knucklehead," Rei laughed quietly. The priestess wasn't freezing cold anymore, but she still cupped her hot tea as if she were. The sense of being one of ten people in the whole solar system was oppressive to her mind; she couldn't think about it without getting a big chill.

"I don't know, I just can't grasp that any part of me was ever that big hulk of a zero, Zeus," Makato said. "I'm …_me_. A Silver Millennium Princess reborn… and proud of it!"

Rei blushed, but said, "Well, I feel like I'm Ares. —And not just from the powers, Mako-chan. I mean, like in a previous life, I think I was _him_!" She smiled and sipped her drink again.

Makato imagined throwing lightning bolts, and her blood boiled with energy. She smiled widely and said, "We Kick ASS, Rei!"

"I know!" Rei sing-songed, smiling widely. But she quickly digressed: "Of course, it's only neat if we can help Usa-chan."

"Of course," Mako smiled, clinking her cup to Rei's. "Just like Ami, I guess. 'The Messenger'." Her face soured on that a bit.

"What's wrong?" Rei asked.

"Well, it's just that Ami has another transformation now… it's like, she REALLY identified with her past self, and already had a duty to carry out in this new form," Makato responded. "I know she's sort of special," she smiled, "But I was freakin ZEUS! How could I not be helpful?"

"You want to transform into a shield-bearing, overbearing, bad-breathed psychopath" Rei laughed. "Anyway, it was said that we're more powerful in a way now than they were in their days. _New and improved!_"

And then Usagi walked in: "Hey guys."


	17. Purgatorio

**an unsatisfying tale of separation.**

.

chapter 17.

Usagi smiled at her friends, then grabbed Makato's hand and stood her up.

"Usagi-chan! Where have you been?" Rei yelped, standing up. She'd been so shocked to see her that she'd completely forgotten herself and ran into her friend's arms.

"Hey!" Makato laughed excitedly, letting Rei maul Usagi first. Usa looked exactly the same as she had the day they flew to Greece. Right down to the clothes, and the smudges of dirt she'd gotten on the ferry. The rest of them had found changes of clothes in the new Moon Palace that, while not fitting perfectly, were gorgeous clothes and better than wearing their Tartarus-smeared rags. She gladly spaced her tattered clothes the first chance she had.

Usagi tried to push off of Rei, but Rei clung tightly, so she patted Rei's back and looked at Makato. "We've got a lot of work to do, guys," she said through happy giggles.

Rei's eyes were closed though, as she'd been drawn inexorably into her friend's aura. Rei's mind had woken to Usagi's presence, and her mind's eye exploded first into terrifying darkness, and then into a sea of stars that she was falling through at immense speeds—

Usagi pushed Rei back and said earnestly, "You shouldn't be doing that yet, Rei-chan."

Makato asked, "Hugging you?"

"Trying to _see_ me with her _psychic abilities_," Usagi smirked at Makato. Usa looked back at Rei and said, "You've always had such a gift with seeing things, but you're very powerful now, and have to go slowly until you're used to it." She smiled at Rei, but was inwardly terrified for her. In some histories, Brother had said that Rei's visions were so strong that she would lose her sight. She pressed her lips together and said, "Maybe you should both transform."

"I've been transformed all day!" Makato complained, but with a smile. "Usa, we've been searching all over for you. We weren't too sure about Haruka and Michiru's stories." She suddenly remembered that Usagi wasn't aware of all the changes they'd gone though, and bit her lip to ask, "Do you know that Mamoru is …_sick_?"

Rei said, "He has some kind of mystical ice spear through his soul." She recalled the size of the thing that Helios had shown them all in the deepest part of Tartarus. "Hotaru suggested that you could.. that um—"

"I know," Usagi nodded. "And it's been removed, but it's going to take time for him to recover."

"Ah," Makato said, surprised, as they'd just checked on Mamoru before coming to bed.

"You… removed it," Rei repeated. She frowned and backed up: "Who… _are_ you? When I came near you, I saw…" she bit her lip and shook her head. "_Space_, Usagi!"

Usagi said, "Rei, you're stronger now. You'll be able to see things like that in everyone."

Rei immediately turned to Makato, and, surprising the Senshi of Juipter, grabbed her just as tightly as she'd grabbed Usagi.

Usagi laughed, but tried to gently pull Rei away: "I said you needed to go slowly. As Mercury put it, you have to get your sea legs!"

But Rei was deafened. She had grasped onto Makato and, instead of stars and space, she saw blood and violence. Great energies being expended, and people dying in the most violent of explosions.

"She's shaking," Makato said anxiously, then helped Usagi get Rei off of her.

"She's going to die if she keeps this up!" Usagi said, concerned. Her hands reached to Rei's face and she tried to rouse Rei from the trance, but if there'd been one area where Usagi had never been successful, it was at interacting with people, both in trying to communicate with them, and in trying to get them to understand her. "Help me!" Usa demanded of Makato.

And Makato helped her: she shook Rei hard, then dropped her and slapped her silly.

Finally, Rei's heart stopped pounding and she opened her eyes on the two most horrible creatures she'd ever imagined possible. Her friends. They looked regular now, but Rei knew better… She pointed at Makato: "You…!"

Usagi pulled Rei back down to sit on the pillows and said, "No; what you saw wasn't Mako-chan. What you saw was the start of mortal life, Rei-chan."

"Come again?" Makato asked, taking a seat on the floor across from them. "You mean she can look so far back that she saw me in the womb?"

"Not exactly," Usagi smiled. "But in the same vein. And Rei, I'm sure it might seem pretty violent to us now—"

"Have you _**seen**_ what I saw?" Rei asked, eyes wide with horror.

Usagi shook her head: "Of course not. You have an ancient gift that has nothing to do with me, but it's come on you too fast, and you don't know how to interpret it correctly yet." She stared at Rei and said: "You've been outside, Rei-chan. You know we have a lot of work to do, to save the things we love. We need you to help us."

"Who's US?" Rei asked.

"All of us!" Usagi answered, purposefully somewhat vague. "—Everybody's necessary! But you're going to have a hard time if you keep going too fast!" She frowned, thoroughly upset with herself for not including all of them in the original Journey. She designed the Journey so that she could regain her memories if she were ever discovered, so the ones she needed immediately would be there to help her. Helios, Uranus, and even Luna to some degree, had been left with their memories intact; and Hotaru of course did whatever she wanted; but Mercury had the first to awaken, to be able to help Usa herself, and the rest in the safe place — Tartarus. But now she saw that nobody else had gained much from the journey except protection, and a general knowledge of Tartarus. And hopefully, with Helios there, a general understanding of history.

"So she's drawing too much power from her crystal?" Makato asked, somewhat upset by the vacant-looking Rei across from her.

Usagi looked at Makato and said softly, "A long time ago, the Moon Queen needed us to govern powers that others had …_abused_." Usagi inhaled sharply; these hadn't been her thoughts, exactly, but those of the Earth Queen's, Gaia. Those had been Gaia's thoughts about the last of the deities, and really the only way Usagi could think to explain things to the girls now.

"Yeah, like Zeus!" Makato smiled.

Usagi winced, but nodded and turned to Rei. "_Sort_ of. But maybe the person who gave us these abilities wasn't so good at understanding …_people_. And so let's say Makato got a lot of power to, oh I don't know…" she shrugged as if it were a hypothetical. "To create."

"Create? You mean like build stuff?" Makato asked. "But Usa-chan, you know the Jupiter powers! Think **thunder** and **lightning**!" she gleamed.

Usagi smiled awkwardly. _Maybe it was time to call Luna or Helios_ _in_, she pondered sadly, recognizing her own shortcomings yet again. These were Sol's stories, after all; stories of times before she came. Usa wanted to wring her hands, but tried her best to remain calm.

Rei looked at Usagi again and said, "So Makato's powers come from someone else. She never had them inherently."

"No!" Usagi insisted, just as she'd argued with Gaia all those millennia ago over the exact same things! Usa said, "_No,_ Rei. Makato's powers aren't defined by her attacks. Not really. And it's the same for you! You're not defined by …by _fire arrows,_ or even by your use of ofuda to …stop evil thoughts."

Makato interrupted Usagi and asked, "Um, so what **did** Rei see when she looked at me, Usa-chan?"

Usagi looked down sadly; any explanations she had wouldn't be understood, although Rei had said enough that it was obvious she was seeing Makato's beginnings as the builder of organic life.

Rei sneered angrily, "I saw you **killing** people, Mako-chan; LOTS of people!" She pulled away from Usagi's hands and said, "And I saw _HER_ flying through space, even before there was space!" _…or something_!

"Well, she's the Moon Princess!" Makato said to Rei. "You know, the Moon _flies through space_. —Maybe that's what you saw?"

Usagi said soothingly. "Mako-chan's actually very close—"

Makato added, "And Zeus surely killed a bunch of people, right?"

"No," Usagi interrupted. She held up a finger to Makato: "Makato, you were …_you_, before Zeus! The Moon Queen might have given you some of Zeus' powers, but they were added to who you already were. What Rei saw was …creation of …mortals!"

"I created mortals," Mako stated flatly.

Usagi sighed. "Sort of. And while Zeus came to represent you, it was your powerful soul, Mako — your star seed! — who first harnessed the galaxy's powers to …make life on Earth." She smiled awkwardly, looking at both girls to see if she'd made any sense at all. "Along with others," she added quickly.

Makato looked at Rei, thinking that their poor friend had been through a bit TOO much and needed some medication.

But Rei asked, "Even if this were true, how could you _know_ this?"

Usagi bit her lip and said, "I, um, _studied_ it, a long time ago." She blanched at their confused stares, then looked down. "You know my, um, mother. The Moon Queen… was very powerful, guys."

_Why had it been so easy with Ami?_ she wondered anxiously.

"What kind of star seed did I have?" Rei challenged Usagi.

But Usagi smiled fondly and said, "Your star seed was the one that unified mortals and planets, Rei-chan."

Rei jumped up and steamed, "No! I was the God of War!"

Usagi remained seated, but looked up at her: "No, _Ares_ was the God of War, Rei. You …_you_ were a magnificent star seed in our solar system, and while Ares might have drawn on some of _your_ powers, he obviously, uh, didn't use them as you had." She looked down, feeling four eyes boring into her. She insisted, "You really came _before_ him, Rei; not the other way around!"

"This is crazy," Makato said glumly. "I agree with Rei: how could you know this, Usa?"

Usagi buried her head in her knees and said, "I've done you a great disservice. You should be finding all this out on your own, naturally, but I supposed I rushed it." She pressed her lips together and said, "That's how Mercury did it; that's how it should have been done."

Rei pressed harder, though: "So what about YOU, Usa-chan. If I was some kind of psychic …_energy_ and Makato—" she couldn't even say it.

"Made mankind," Makato supplied.

"That," Rei huffed, "Then what about the rest of us, Usa? What about you?" —because Rei wasn't stupid, and she remembered all the creepy hints Hotaru had tossed their way about Usagi and the Moon Princess when they were down in Hell. "What. About. You."

Usagi swallowed, but looked up and quickly said, "You all were reborn into the Moon Kingdom, around the same time as I was. You …you came from the Cauldron—"

"Galaxia's realm," Makato seethed, disbelievingly.

"No, remember that all souls come from the Cauldron!" Usagi said, but was a little freaked out remembering her original thoughts on the Cauldron, coupled with the knowledge that she had constructed the Cauldron herself. —And not because the galaxy needed a such a thing, but because it needed such a thing so _she_ wouldn't destroy it by just passing through it.

"You're hyperventilating," Rei said angrily to the Moon Princess, then tossed her a pillow to breathe into for a few minutes.

"I remember the Cauldron, Usa," Makato smiled then. "I'm sorry; I guess this is just really hard to believe, but …well, I suppose we all had to start somewhere."

And while Rei held the pillow to Usa's face, Makato reflected on how much she'd like to just high-five herself a bit on such a good job she did MAKING MANKIND!

Finally, Usagi said, "It was just like when Galaxia sent you there, yes. And when you were there a few years ago, you had a choice to return to your lives as you are now. But when you were born in the Silver Millennium, you had apparently opted to start new lives. And I'm sure the …" she choked again. She felt like she was lying everytime she said 'Moon Queen', but she wasn't sure how much they could take in one sitting. She wasn't even sure she was helping them NOW. But she needed them, soon, to help in the revival of the planet. At least, Brother said their 'talents' would be required.

"You're just talking about reincarnation, Usa-chan," Rei said angrily. "Only you're suggesting that the Senshi were _the original ones who helped form the solar system_. Right?"

"Not all of them, Rei. Pretty much the Inner Senshi," Usagi said worriedly.

Rei looked at Usagi and asked, "Well, you're an Inner Senshi. —Did YOU come from the Cauldron, Usagi?"

Usagi couldn't respond, '_No. I made the Cauldron, Rei._' She was in quite a spot, and didn't know what to do.

"You were different, weren't you?" Makato said kindly, both to support the Princess, and to hope the support would help her spit out the information.

Eyes wide, Usagi said, "I don't think you could say I _came_ from the Cauldron."

"But you said everyone in the galaxy came from the Cauldron!" Makato exclaimed. But then backed down a lot and smiled warmly: "Look, Usa," she sighed, "Whatever our pasts were, we know and understand that you're the Moon Princess! The one who's helped us all these years spare the world from the evils of Chaos! Fought all the battles, just so we could live our lives…!"

"I agree," Rei said, although non-commitally.

"All that matters is that we're together now," Usagi insisted. "We're the Senshi, and we can fix that planet! I didn't mean to start a discussion on things that …well, really don't matter now," she shrugged, but with tears in her eyes.

But Rei said, "That was because I hugged you, Usa. And if I'm understanding correctly, I'll be able to detect …things like this, from a lot more people, all the time." Beat. "Do you have any new …abilities?"

Usagi was crest-fallen. "New abilities?" she cried. She opened her eyes wide and let Rei stare at them, but Rei didn't seem to notice anything of import. Which was strange; Gaia had always said that she could see Serenity's 'uniqueness' by the galaxies in her eyes.

"She can obviously build stuff pretty quickly," Makato offered, patting the floor of the MOON PALACE Usagi had obviously built. "—and you said I was a creator!"

"You are!" Usagi smiled, with tears rolling down her face now. "I can do a lot of things, but Mako-chan, I can't make organic things like you… and Rei, I'm not a psychic like you! I'm not quick-witted like Ami-chan, or the goddess who brought love into the world!" She shook her head angrily, thinking of all the things she WASN'T—

"Pillow," Makato said.

Rei put the pillow gently over her sad friend's face and held her softly, telling her to breathe into the pillow.

.

Eternal Sailor Venus entered the palace's living room and detransformed, then plopped down beside Mamoru on the luxurious sofa. "Long day," she sighed to the comatose man, then plucked a bit of his hair out of his eyes. Quietly, she said, "King Endymion." And then silently she thought, '_Your planet's in grave danger, the Moon Princess is nowhere to be found, and we're all sitting up here in the only building with breathable air._'

And then Mamoru roared, making Minako jump up in fear. She swallowed, then said, "You're hurting, aren't you?"

Artemis opened an eye and said, "The Princess is back, and she's removed the offending ice spear."

Mina had jumped when her cat spoke, but now turned to her cat and whispered, "Usa-chan's back? Where IS she, Artemis?"

Luna stepped out of the shadows and said, "She needed to talk to the Inners, and you were out—"

"Where are they?" Minako exclaimed, looking round about her as if to discern the truth on her own.

"We're right here, Mina-chan," Rei smiled, walking down one side of the elaborately-decorated spiral staircases, with Usagi between herself and Makato.

Minako nearly cried upon seeing her Princess, then literally screamed, then ran up the stairs to meet them and to hug her bestie: "Usa-chan, I don't care what the others said; I was terrified we'd never see you again!"

Usagi nearly choked with Minako's hug, but then chuckled quietly and said, "You can always trust Uranus, okay Mina-chan?"

Mercury floated down from her position high above as watcher, and said softly, "So glad you're back, Serenity."

Usagi rolled her eyes with a quirky grin, then said, "You _saw_ me coming, Ames!"

"Well I know, but …" Mercury flew towards the four Inners and group-hugged them. "I didn't want to miss anything!"

Rei stood back a bit from the group hug — she didn't want any further strange visions right now, nor was she ever much into the giddy girly thing. Although it warmed her heart to see this particular group reunited.

Makato laughed at Mercury and said, "You might have wanted to miss what WE just talked about."

"Oh, do tell!" Minako smiled widely. But then noticed the sour faces on Makato, Usagi, and especially Rei. "—Maybe after a welcome back party, of course!"

Usagi passed through the group and went to bend the knee at Mamoru's quiet, crumpled form.

"He woke up for a moment, Lady Moon," Artemis said formally.

Luna wrinkled her nose at that, even though she'd been the one to insist that Usagi's origins were no longer a question, but rather quite enormously more than any of them might have ever imagined. The seventeen-year old Usagi appeared now just as she always had in this life: as a nice, if confused, young woman who was worried about her prince. So Luna said, "I wouldn't say he WOKE… Princess. It was more that he expressed pain and turned over."

Usagi's hand was on the area where Mamoru had been run through. She shut her eyes tightly and cried, "I'm so sorry, Mamoru."

.

Hours later, Mamoru woke to see Usagi over him, and he was confused about the last few months of his life, but smiled warmly and asked his angel, "Are we in Tartarus?"

"We're on the Moon," Mercury said.

Mamoru sat up, holding Usagi's hand tightly. She looked so small, so nearly puerile. "You look almost exactly the same as you did when we were in Greece!" he stammered.

"But you look a lot worse for the wear, my love," Usagi said mournfully, but with a small smile. She bent over and kissed him sweetly. "Feeling better?"

"How long has it been?" Mamoru asked, sitting up and looping an arm possessively behind Usagi's back. Overcome with emotion, he pulled her head to his chest and kissed her odangos hard, inhaling the scent of her. All the girls were here, and the cats. Thank God there were no giant immortals from Tartarus around to bully them.

"Three days," Makato said.

"Well, three days since we left _Tartarus_," Luna corrected.

"About 3 months since we left Tokyo for your journey," Mercury clarified.

Mamoru moved again, but it hurt. Usagi said, "It'll take a little while for you to recover… but not long."

"It's gone, then? The ice javelin that was through me?" he asked.

Usagi nodded quietly.

"But…" Mamoru said, confused, and holding his head where a headache was coming on. Usa looked at Haruka, who immediately left for an ice pack.

"Who took it out?" Mamoru asked, trying to touch what had been a tender area through his torso. It was still tender. "Are we sure it's out? Cronus…" he coughed and bent over Usagi in pain. "—said that only a …an ancient god could remove it."

"You can't always believe what I say," Hotaru smirked. And felt the eyes of the Senshi boring upon her evilly. She smiled back and waved: "Hey!"

"I took it out, Mamoru, but only after Helios identified it and said where it was. After your Journey," Usagi said, hoping she wouldn't have to get into THIS with HIM right NOW, because she wasn't sure she had it in her to hear Mamo-chan quiz her like Rei had done.

"What _happened_ to you?" Mamoru asked, pulling her closer now. He gently brushed some of the stray hairs from her face, and noticed then a peculiar sparkle about her skin. "Usako, are you wearing a glamour? Your skin…?"

Uranus interrupted as she placed the ice pack firmly on Baka's head, with an answer to his first question: "Usa-chan came to see us right before the planet began to freeze, and then we came up to the Moon."

But Rei stepped toward Usagi as well and gently grabbed onto her long ponytails. They didn't look fake, of course, but something about her indeed looked …made up. "Are you using the Luna Pen, Usa-chan?"

Usagi glanced at her Messenger, who immediately quieted Rei with a hand.

"You ask too many question, my love," Usagi said to Mamoru. "Where I've been… well, first of all, for me it's only been a few days, Mamo-chan."

"We're on the Moon?" Mamoru asked, forgetting his questioning and looking at all the civilian Senshi around him. Then quickly to Usagi: "How'd this place come to be?" Mamoru asked, looking around at the Moon Palace. "I remember seeing it when we first got out of Tartarus… it doesn't make any sense! That it's …here!"

Luna looked at Usagi curiously, but the Princess answered with striking honesty: "I made it, Mamoru."

"You …_made_ it," Mamoru said slowly. "…but Usako," he laughed nervously. "It has furnishings and …_tap water_! Electricity!"

Hotaru smiled and added, "And clothing that fits us all, fresh food, handwritten notes in the drawers! Usa-chan, WE'RE CONFUSED!"

"Shut up!" both Michiru and Makato said to the Senshi of Saturn, then stood together before Hotaru as if to shut her up.

"—Actually the basic infrastructure was here," Mercury said. "There's a treasure trove of antique writings beneath this palace."

Mamoru shook his head, dizzy with confusion. "Usako, all this is impossible!" He looked up at her pleadingly and begged, "Please tell me what's going on!"

Usagi blanched for a moment, but said, "About the palace? Well, Mamo-chan, I'd been cold and alone, and of course the Earth had frozen over. I –I didn't want the moonscape to be so barren."

Mamoru's headache was getting worse; he rubbed the back of his head and moved the ice pack there. Then he pushed himself up and let his vision clear. Rei was in his view, then Minako, and of course Michiru and Makato who were blocking the evil Cronus.

"I think we should set up a breathable atmosphere here," Usagi said carefully, but with as much aloofness as she could muster just then. "We won't be able to return to Earth for a while—"

"Right," Mamoru said, walking towards the window he barely remembered Haruka pointing out the day he arrived. But the Earth already looked different: "Wait.. what's happened to the planet _now_?" Where there had been a giant ball of ice, was now a network of something like colorful strings covering the globe.

"Yeah, that… is an attempt to keep everyone alive until the planet's temperature can return to normal," Usagi said.

"Who PLACED it?" Mamoru worried, checking his stomach again for tenderness. After what he'd seen in the Ninth Circle, he wasn't sure of anything anymore, including his Usako. This could all be a dream of some sort…

Helios, who'd just come running in and overheard the Prince's question, cleared his throat and said loudly. "Endymion, you're better! That's good."

Usagi tilted her head and winked at her 'uncle'; he'd always been her hugest fan, although she had not recalled that until recently. He'd almost immediately helped direct her on the safest means of restoring the planet, and he'd really cranked up the dreams for the citizens, as well, that they might not go stark-raving mad in their sleep.

"Princess," Helios bowed, although he hadn't been really sure how to address her, or those asking about her, since their recovery from Tartarus. The sprite had just popped up their first night here, and had made it clear what her priorities were: to restore the Earth, and therefore her prince. She'd even referred to Helios as 'brother' once, in such a lackadaisical way that he KNEW Serenity, _the original_, was back.

Except Serenity _the Queen_ hadn't been the one in love with Mamoru; Serenity _the Queen_ was also a lot more mature, in Helios' estimation, than this girl. Helios simply wasn't sure what to make of her; but given that she'd been instrumental in placing the framework to restore the planet and the lives of all those living there… He smiled at the bubbly thing, who was completely focused on Endymion.

Mamoru's hand jerked around Usagi's waist suddenly, and he said proudly, "She's back, Helios. Bet you weren't expecting that!"

"I had always hoped we'd see her again," Helios nodded, but with hitched breath. "—I'm afraid you're under the impression that I'm somehow not fond of the Princess. But as I told you before—"

"You **separated** us," Mamoru snarled. "A fact that neither she nor I will forget anytime soon."

"Mamoru," Usagi said softly. "Helios had to separate us. I didn't know that then, and I was quite upset by it at first—"

"WHY are you wearing a glamour, Usako?" Mamoru demanded, just then seeing the glint of her skin, but was all the more disturbed by the fact that she otherwise looked just like his girlfriend.

She smiled and said, "Maybe if you're up for it, we should take a walk!"

"Alone?" Makato asked, moving away from Hotaru and saying, "Usa-chan, he JUST woke up!"

Luna agreed emphatically: "He's still weak, Usa!"

"I ASKED a question," Mamoru turned and yelled to those who would hide the truth from him.

"Mamoru-chan," Rei said somewhat formally, then took a knee before him as if pleading. "What's happened here is very …unusual, and believe me, it's probably best to hear it with a clear head."

"Tell me why she has to use a glamour to appear like Usagi!" Mamoru insisted, backing away from them all.

"I can assure you that this is the Princess!" Helios said, somewhat embarrassed.

"Not what I asked!" Mamoru said.

Usagi, meanwhile, stood perfectly still, eyes wide, and once again, out of her element! But finally she said, with as much false bravado as she could muster, "Mamo-chan, something happened to me; I can't BE a civilian anymore except through the Luna Pen." A small white lie; she didn't need the Luna Pen anymore to do what the Luna Pen did. But it was what could be easily understood. "I can't detransform, and…" she sadly bit her lip. "I like fitting in. I don't fit in as Eternal Sailor Moon." She frowned, but tried her best to fight the tears.

"I warned you that we might all be changed by this Journey, Endymion," Helios offered, somewhat firmly. Because dammit, _this was EXACTLY why_ he and Gaia had been so adamant about any hot-tempered mortal being with Serenity in a romantic way. One bad argument, and the easily offended young Princess could leave forever—exactly what Gaia had fought so hard to avoid.

Mamoru, now concerned again about his fiancé, asked, "Usako, what happened to you?" But he feared he already knew.. that she'd used the Silver Crystal too much, to try to spare the Earth, and even that failed attempt had been too much! He immediately worried about how to keep one such as her, a very social butterfly if ever there was one, happy in a desolate world! But then he remembered Crystal Tokyo, and although it had seemed like such an impossibility while he was in Tartarus …well, they were all alive now. And the future was really set; they WOULD have their utopia one day.

But Usagi was breathless again; he kept asking pointed questions, and she simply didn't want to lie to him. She glanced around the room at all the Senshi, even Hotaru sitting there with a wicked smile on her face enjoying this turmoil, and said finally: "Mamoru, maybe we should take a walk." She smiled sadly at him and said, "Can YOU transform?"

.

"Your BROTHER?" Mamoru exclaimed. "DAMMIT, Usako, you… I don't understand," he shook his head. "You're telling me that the MENACE who has been torturing us all these years…" He smacked his head, then again yelled, "The sole source of ALL EVIL …is YOUR BROTHER?"

"He is," she said firmly, but quietly. "But Mamo-chan he knew nothing of all that he'd created; he really didn't."

"_HE_ created?" Mamoru said, spinning around angrily to walk away. "He doesn't CREATE, Usa; he DESTROYS!"

She nodded patiently, not really agreeing with him, but certainly understanding his position.

Mamoru stamped around a little longer, then asked how she got rid of him.

"I didn't," Usagi said. "Mamoru, he's my brother …my family! He's all I'd ever known until I met everyone here, and …I love him." As Mamoru's back was to her, and he wasn't screaming, she figured she'd finally succeeded in getting through to someone. "And if it weren't for him, I wouldn't have _**you**_, or _the Senshi_… or anything, really! My brother is the father of ALL the ancients!"

"Father of all the ancients," Mamoru repeated dumbly, staring at his planet. But then he remembered suddenly what had been said in the Ninth Circle, and he backed away. "You're… you're the _Protogenoi_ they were talking about. Yes! …you said it yourself, you removed the ice javelin that Chaos threw though me, and only a Protogenoi…" He stammered, "YOU'RE …_IT_!"

Usagi grew uncomfortable, but shrugged. "I guess I am; but it doesn't matter, Mamoru, not really!"

Furious, arms in the air, Mamoru yelled, "NOT REALLY? Oh come ON! You've hounded me for YEARS because YOUR BROTHER brainwashed Diamond to try to rape you! Because King Endymion tried to spare Chibiusa that same brainwashing!" He turned, thinking now. "—Oh ..my God! Usagi, the reason they made you take Chibiusa's place—!"

Usagi shriveled at his anger.

"Yes of course!" Mamoru exclaimed. "They would have known that YOUR BROTHER was behind the attack on Crystal Tokyo! They probably hadn't wanted Chibiusa to suffer unjustly because of YOUR brother!"

Wide-eyed, Usagi backed up and shook her head; "Oh, I hope that's not the case, Mamoru. A wrong is still a wrong!"

"A WRONG?" he spit angrily. "He HURT us, and everyone; wanted to DESTROY our PLANET! And you call it A WRONG?"

Usagi wilted more and said, "He was only trying to find me, Mamo-chan. I don't think he _intended_—"

"You FORGIVE him that?" Mamoru seethed. "He attacked YOUR DAUGHTER!"

Usagi stuttered, "But…, well Mamoru, you don't understand. You see, it wasn't exactly 'him' doing the attacking, for one—"

He spun and waved an arm at the white Earth: "And THIS? You forgive him THIS?"

"He —was trying to find me. He didn't know any better," Usagi said softly. "Mamoru, I was hoping you wouldn't be angry; there's so much more to tell!"

But he'd heard enough; just plenty. He stormed away…

.

From inside, the watchful Senshi and advisors cringed as Mamoru held his arms up and stalked all over the place. Finally, Luna said, "Let's go."

"On it," Makato agreed, transforming and heading for the door.

"No wait!" Minako said. "He's going back to her!"

Rei cringed, wanting Jupiter to go out anyway. She couldn't imagine what Usa might be telling Mamoru, but she'd known what Usa had told her. And it had been a hard pill to swallow. In fact, she still hadn't swallowed it; it sat in her mouth, leaving a terrible taste.

Helios said, "We should at least bring him in for a brief respite. I could talk to him."

"Just wait!" Minako insisted, smiling and thinking about how love would find a way, even through this most messy of scenarios. _Especially_ the love of Endymion and Serenity.

.

Mamoru turned around and came back spitting mad: "HOW did I get dragged into this? I don't even KNOW you! —Did you brainwash ME to fall in love with YOU?"

Usagi looked confused. "Excuse me, Mamoru?" — _Huh?_

"Yeah," he charged. "I learned that I supposedly went to Zeus to BEG him to take away all my days, so I could be immortal for you!"

"Oh," Usagi said, struggling for breath. "You …you don't think we fell in love."

Luna and Jupiter quickly ran up to the pair, with Luna saying, "Usagi, it's imperative that we take him back in."

Usagi was so stunned by Mamoru's accusation that she just stood there, eyes watered.

And with frustrated animation, Mamoru finally responded to Usagi: "_Nnnuuhh?_ How could I know! I couldn't possibly know that! Usagi, I can't know it! —but _you_ could! After all it's in YOUR family abilities to brainwash people!"

Jupiter was shocked that he'd say such a thing and stammered, "Brainwashing is NOT in her family! And even if it were, she wouldn't **do** that, Mamoru!"

But Usagi's eyes flashed and she said, "My brother might have provided the means to brainwash people, but it was _humans_ who actually used the power!" —if she knew anything of her brother, it was that he wouldn't demean himself to interact with actual mortal lifeforms!

Luna and Jupiter were both mystified by Usagi's words, although for different reasons. Jupiter said, "Wait, are you saying Helios is really your brother? Can he even brainwash people?"

But Luna knew exactly what Usagi was talking about. The Dark Phantom. "No," Luna swallowed. "There's no way she's a relation of the Dark Phantom!"

Jupiter's head jerked sharply to Luna.

"Humans were LURED to use the evil powers, Usagi," Mamoru said angrily, then looked again at the planet he'd been charged to protect.

"You are greatly mistaken, Endymion," Helios yelled, running at full speed to the very scene he'd had nightmares about for eons. He'd _TOLD_ Gaia that the mortal had been too hot-headed… _TOLD_ her! But she'd insisted that with her Golden Crystal in the mortal's soul, he couldn't possibly endanger the bond he would share with Serenity.

They all turned to look at Helios, who was yelling, "The Moon Queen had crafted her daughter well before you'd even heard of her; and I **watched** — not overly pleased, mind you! — as the two of you began your love affair, because I knew that Queen Serenity and her daughter were **not** what they seemed." He blanched, then turned quickly to Usagi: "_Magnificent creatures_, of course! Great blessing on our solar system! —But certainly not known quantities! I wasn't sure that one of Earth's mortals would be the proper choice for …for one such as yourself."

Luna's eyes enlarged as Helios turned on her: "And Luna was there, as well, to watch as this happened! None of us liked it because it was too important to us all to ensure that Serenity and her daughter would remain here! We didn't want a mortal to endanger that!" —which Endymion had _BETTER_ not be doing. But one glance at her showed a Serenity more upset than he'd ever seen her, and he'd grown UP with her! Witnessed her lose Cronus to Tartarus. And was the one who'd told her that her best friend Gaia had given her life so that young Serenity could have a proper spouse. Even when she didn't know herself and was at her lowest, like while fighting Nehellenia, she'd always shown a quality of hope. NEVER had he seen her this disturbed and upset.

Luna concurred with Helios' assessment quickly: "You went to Zeus on your own, Chiba."

Then Artemis, who'd finally made it to the scene, added, "We even tried to undo it! I went to Zeus myself!"

But Mamoru turned and glared at Usagi: "What _**are**_ you?"

"Funny you never asked that before," Usagi said, hurt. And not just by Mamoru, but by Helios' and supposedly Gaia's apparent FEAR of her! "—I suppose I'm someone everyone feels they should be scared of," she said, glancing at Luna and Helios. Then, barely controlling her tears, she asked, "What have I **ever** done to make you distrust me so?"

"It was merely precaution," Luna said anxiously.

Helios turned to Usagi and nearly begged, "You must understand _**why**_ we'd fear you." He looked at the planet pointedly, as if that were explanation enough. He couldn't face her right that moment, so kept his eyes pinned on the planet. "I credit you where it's due, Sister. You've allowed this planetary system to thrive for so long!" He swallowed. "You built Tartarus, and Elysion—."

"To save a friend. Yes," Usagi said, feeling betrayed by the ones she loved the most. "And later to spare anyone who was in danger of being exterminated, Helios." She turned to Jupiter, who looked completely shocked and awed, and said, "To SAVE people, Mako-chan!"

"Like Cronus," Helios hissed under his breath.

"Hotaru," Usagi corrected with wet eyes. She was shaking with anger now, though. "—There were many upheavals, and I didn't want to lose anybody."

"And you knew the Ancients were looking for you," Helios said.

"You mean CHAOS!" Mamoru yelled, not really following the conversation, but trying his best. The bit about her constructing Elysion and, most particularly, Tartarus, had really unnerved him. He'd always just assumed Elysion had been from HIS family. Helios had helped him remember it all… but he'd never mentioned that Elysion had been constructed. Of course it had, he thought now. And whose else could have built it! He sneered, "_The Protogenoi!"_

Usagi stilled uncomfortably, really learning to hate that term. Probably because of the way it was said. So this was it; she was being tried before her peers, and found untrustworthy. _Unworthy._ Chin quivering, she said, "I —Mamoru, I just wanted some _more time_ here. —And Gaia welcomed me with open arms." She stared at Mamoru and whispered, "I would have _left_ if Gaia had wished it, but she didn't. She thought she could keep me hidden in plain sight—"

"Gaia was WRONG!" Mamoru huffed. And he was still stuck on her claim to have constructed Tartarus. "You BUILT Tartarus; you …_built_ Elysion."

Helios said, "Long ago, Endymion. Well before she was placed as my sister, from what I understand—"

"Geez I need a drink," Jupiter said softly, but was still in Princess-Protection mode, hands splayed between everyone and Usagi. She wasn't sure WHY anymore, if Usa was in any way Helios' brother and could ..fucking _build_ Tartarus! But this was her duty; her calling. Hell, she was freakin Zeus, in a sense. No… Zeus had been HER. She was fundamentally stronger than Zeus. She realized she must be here for a reason.

Mamoru turned to Helios and spitefully said, "I thought Elysion was '_built by people's dreams'_, Helios?"

Helios stared wide-eyed at the Prince, then said, "When I said that, you couldn't have possibly understood! But it is true, in a sense…"

But Mamoru turned to Usagi: "—If you built Tartarus, why couldn't you BE there? Why did you leave the rest of us down there to SUFFER?"

Helios was well past disturbed by the young prince's anger: "Endymion, if I may direct you back to your trip along the Acheron; to a vision you had, that you didn't think pertained to you."

But Mamoru was adamant and yelled at Usagi: "You LEFT us there, in a …a _demonic place_ that YOU built, Usagi! I want to know WHY you couldn't GO there!"

Again Helios interjected, more firmly this time: "Endymion, she constructed something that the Protogenoi would find abhorrent, so others could be safe from the Protogenoi!"

"From the Protogenoi," Mamoru repeated, then turned on Usagi and charged, "You."

Usagi grimaced under his gaze, but refused to cry. She nodded: "Yes."

"Well let's see it," Mamoru said angrily. "We've caught a glimpse of your beloved brother, have we not? Let us see what you _really_ look like! —Not Sailor Moon, but your Chaos form!"

"Chaos form?" Jupiter coughed, suddenly stricken with fear. Hell, she was just getting used to Usa's brother being Helios! She was lost in the sauce!

"You go TOO FAR, Endymion," Helios said, readying an spell for Gaia's replacement to shut his damned face. "She is NOT Chaos!"

"She's FOUGHT Chaos," Luna agreed angrily.

Mamoru's arms were out to either side of him, as if daring Usagi: "Fine, then. Whatever form you Protogenoi might take! —or might I not be able to _comprehend_ such a being!"

"Watch yourself, Mamoru," Jupiter said.

"Yes please," Helios agreed, not wanting to use his spell against the Prince. "_Again_, Endymion, I implore you to remember your visions of people overtaken by their passions! Never able to be content! You said that couldn't apply to you—!"

Mamoru turned on Helios madly and said, "I just want to see the so-called 'woman' I'm engaged to!" And then he jerked his head back to Usagi angrily: "Is that too much to ask? I want to _see_ what kind of _creature_ could possibly build HELL—!"

But Usagi had already let go of her glamour makeup that had made her Usagi, and Eternal Sailor Moon stood before them.

And then she let go of that henshin, and with no small remorse reached back through the eons for her true self—

Luna hissed holy murder, and Jupiter lashed out: "Where'd she go?" She turned around and instinctively punched Mamoru in the chest.

"What's going on?" Mars demanded, as she and the rest of the Senshi ran out. "We were watching but—"

"He RAN HER OFF!" Jupiter pronounced as Helios tended the fallen Prince.

.

Cosmos floated in the depths of the solar system, and apologized silently to she who had been her mother. To herself. Although they _were__n't_ exactly separate entities, she understood. Protogenoi, as her brother's offspring called them, never went away, not really. She had sacrificed a part of herself for herself, in a sense, because she'd wanted nothing more than to find love. Which she had done! —until she'd scared him off.

As Cosmos settled down around the planet Saturn, she spun into a pink swirl with her signature blonde streamers blowing through the orbits of several planets. She reached her arms out to either side and relaxed into something like the shape of a human: two upper limbs stretched out; two lower, spread out. Pink energy from before the beginnings of time exploded and turned a large expanse of the outer solar system sparkly pink.

"Is this good enough?" she asked, knowing they couldn't comprehend her tongue.

.

Luna stopped the fighting and pointed out into deep space: "There."

And they all fell silent as they surely recognized the blonde streamers emerging from a pink nebulae, floating through the planetary plane.

And then she was gone.

.

They looked for her; even those of Tartarus were suddenly freed to come to the Moon, and they looked for her. Uranus had soon instructed everyone on the basics of the story as she knew it; how Gaia had maneuvered and plotted to grab a powerful being like Serenity to keep the solar system alive and thriving. And Mercury had explained more of the mechanics of Tartarus and the reasons why Serenity might have constructed such a beast. And Pluto then testily informed them all that the entire solar system was a giant target without '_its'_ Protogenoi, captured by Gaia herself, happily residing therein.

"We're sitting ducks," Pluto concluded.

Sailor Mars tried to find something of her friend through her fires, and Mercury did everything in her power to 'snap' herself to the Princess with "a message" — any message that any of several people made up, to see if the powers of a Messenger could extend even to an Ancient. But really, what could one possibly have to emergency message _a_ _First_ about?

"You'll go down in history alright," Zeus growled to Mamoru. "Biggest dumbass to disgrace history. Or would you like, 'Destroyer of Worlds', better?"

"Hey!" Saturn complained. _That was her title_!

"She just disappeared!" Mamoru complained. "During the middle of a conversation!" He then turned from the brute and continued to busy himself at the makeshift science tent that faced Earth. "Has there been any change?"

"Lots of change," the ever-observing Pluto said. "But I believe it's merely what the Princess set in motion; there hasn't been any active intervention there since the Princess left."

Mamoru angrily said, "Would you stop calling her 'the Princess'? She was …whatever she was." He glowered angrily, "How about 'The Infiltrator!'"

"That's a good one," Hotaru said, sucking down a big bite of yogurt as she sat in a lawn chair nearby. Infiltrator or not, Usagi sure could stock a kitchen! "—makes her sound like a spy! I think she'd like it!"

Pluto turned on The Senshi of Death and glared, "Do you HAVE to be here? We're actually trying to DO GOOD here." –_Well, except for the Earth Prince_, Pluto thought. Chiba was just up here brooding, looking at 'his planet', and demanding some answers every now and then. And policing what people called the Princess, it seemed.

Meanwhile, Helios and Luna had buried themselves in the underground corridors of the Moon Palace, in what they now called 'the hall of annals', pouring over the books there for any hint of how to contact Usagi.

Luna sighed, "We don't even know her name; what she was called before '_Serenity'_."

Helios wasn't happy with the suggestion that they should know such names, though: "It's enough that she was here, and protected us from Chaos for so long."

"Fine," Luna snapped. "But how should we find her again if we don't even know who we're looking for?"

.

And about a week later, none of them had gotten any further in their quests, either to call Usagi, or to figure out a way to unmelt the earth. Rei had delved into Mamoru's mind for any hint that he might have some special "melting" power, but came up empty. She'd been thrown into her role head-first, and still hated it, but knew it was absolutely paramount to find the Princess at any cost.

And Mamoru, though still shell-shocked about everything from Helios and his Golden Crystal to Usagi, had finally caved to the possibility that they might actually need Usagi to help the planet. But his bitterness shined like a beacon.

"We make a disaster," Mamoru finally suggested. "She loves this world so much?" He lifted his arms with a punk smile and said, "Let her save it."

There was absolute silence.

"You are one sick fuck," Sailor Uranus said spitefully.

"I can't believe he's got _Gaia's_ _spirit_ in him," Sailor Jupiter snapped.

But Neptune said, "Actually, he might have a point." And at Uranus' hard glare, she merely shrugged. They _were_ getting desperate here!

"You'd risk the countless lives SHE tried to save, just to lure her back here?" Pluto said to Mamoru, jerking the data away from the monster.

Saturn leaned back and said, "Truly sick. Something only a mortal could imagine." —She _liked_ it and made a point to record it for later uses.

Venus flinched, and ultimately agreed with Pluto: "And it's not happening. We're in charge here until she comes back, and if Mamoru doesn't care about his planet, that doesn't mean we're going to let him destroy it."

She didn't address him directly because she wasn't speaking to him.

.

Chaos laughed at the group he'd overheard on the Moon. "They're trying to catch Cosmos, much like I'd been trying to do all these eons! _Ironic_, don't you think?"

"Leave them alone, Brother," Cosmos said drily, directly affecting the energies in the Earth as her brother instructed her to do. "Come over here; be of some use please."

"_Be of some use_," Chaos mimicked her playfully. But then, he said, "I tell you, THIS is the thanks you get for trying to help the offspring."

Cosmos sneered and said, "You offered; now get over here and help me!"

Chaos pulled several people from crushed homes and reinvigorated them, then placed them in a pool of water meant to keep them in stasis. This was the stupidest thing he'd ever heard of, un-killing the dead and gone.

"That's my mom and dad," Cosmos said. "Shingo ought to be in there somewhere."

Chaos sneered, but dispersed the rest of the house and found the boy. He crammed a tube into the boy's chest and set him afloat in the same sea. The Sea of Juuban.

Cosmos heated up the atmosphere and melted more of the ice covering them, increasing the size of the pools.

"I told you a mortal couldn't love you," Brother said. "I shall wipe out his existence—"

"Then you'll wipe out my own," Cosmos said, then instantly razed the rest of the city block and captured the peoples therein into the pool. She'd discovered, the hard way, that even with the Silver Crystal, she couldn't just wish the Earth to unfreeze and all the people to be alive and well. There was no 'bad guy' directly involved, since she now understood the reason Chaos had attacked the planet, and there was so much to be undone. What the Silver Crystal _could_ affect, however, she did. Chaos had assisted her with ideas of how she might get her wish still, but warned her that it would require quite a bit of effort and skill. And, unlike her, he'd claimed he had skillz. And that her Senshi who'd practically made this galaxy likewise had some _minor_ skills. She smiled at the memory.

"Because of _**him**_?" Chaos blustered, taking out the remainder of the frozen structures and collecting the memorabilia into the subspace pocket of each family.

"Because of _me_," Cosmos said. "I don't like death, Brother. I can't live with it."

"Ah," he said, looking around at the tubal subspace areas which ultimately led to the 'hiding places' — the offensive spaces where Cosmos put entire clans of people that didn't get along with others on a grand scale. Three areas now, if you included the Time Space corridor that _really_, his first offspring had thrown into being — Cosmos had merely made it accessible.

"We're finished in my town," Cosmos announced.

Chaos hid a chuckle; it must be like having a pet rock, to have a 'home town'. —then again, one might have a pet rock, but his sister had _all the rocks_ as pets. The two entities moved into the next area to continue their recovery efforts.


	18. The Twelfth Night

**an unsatisfying tale of separation.**

.

chapter 18.

Another week passed, and while Mamoru had busied himself with the study of ancient Moon Kingdom script, he was beside himself with grief. They had all shared information, including the insane _crap_ Usagi had told Rei and Makato of their previous lives; they had all gotten a heaping helping of Gaia's motives from Helios and Luna; and Mamoru realized that most of them accepted everything and simply wanted Usagi back. And of course, he found himself coming to the same conclusions, although he still didn't understand many things. Specifically, how Usagi was apparently her own mother, and they were now again the same entity. He REALLY didn't understand how Chaos could be her brother. And it's not like Saturn added anything but ire and hatred to any serious questions they posed to her, so who she was to Usagi, and why she'd been 'protected' as Cronus, was a mystery to them all.

"She should have told me this herself," Mamoru told Rei one evening. "I would have been fine if she'd have just told me everything!"

"She tried," Rei said, completely bored with Mamoru's soul-searching. As was everybody else on the Moon and from Tartarus. Including even Beryl, who'd opted to go back to the comforting Eighth Circle of Hell to be rid of his whining.

But the truth was, Mamoru looked so forlorn and heartbroken that Rei just couldn't brush him off that easily. She rolled her eyes and said, "Mamoru, I think Usagi is …different from us."

Mamoru said sarcastically, "No. _Really._"

Rei picked up her mocha and leaned back in the palace's recliner, trying to relax. "I've told you about my ability to sense a person's whole past; their whole meaning."

Mamoru nodded dumbly, still staring out the giant window.

"What I may _not_ have told you is that Usagi was the first person I was able to delve into like that. And everyone else, they had something quite gruesome going on. —I suppose because it only seems gruesome to us now because we weren't even human at the time; these strange interactions would be necessarily violent…" She shrugged. "Usagi tried to tell me that, and I won't say it makes a lot of sense. —I thought she was making stuff up, to be honest."

Then Rei smiled: "But Usagi doesn't …make stuff up. Not really. Not important stuff. Right?" Mamoru remained quiet. "Okay, so when I delved into your Golden Crystal, I saw, well, I guess Gaia, basically. And that wasn't what I wanted to see, so I delved more. I couldn't separate you from Gaia, though, even though I'm sure you must have had your own star seed at some point."

"What did you see, Rei?" Mamoru asked.

Rei grinned: "Gaia, well, she was unlike anyone I'd ever 'met'. In real life or otherwise. She was a big, hefty, HAPPY person! —who'd rob you blind to help her own cause. And from what I gathered from both Helios and Uranus, Gaia …well, she went around taking powerful star seeds to bring to the Earth, all in a quest to build a stronger planet. She wanted power, Mamoru." Beat. "Know who she sounds like?"

"That's not me at all," Mamoru grimaced. "Not an imperial bone in my body."

"I agree," Rei said, shrugging. "But _Gaia_. Who does SHE sound like?"

Mamoru was quick-witted enough: "Galaxia."

Rei nodded. "Usagi told us that she saved Galaxia because she didn't want to be alone. But we also learned that Galaxia was scared of Chaos, and wanted to build a strong star system to be able to fight him." Rei shrugged. "It just occurs to me that we're …Galaxians!"

"Gaia was never THAT bad, according to Uranus," Mamoru retorted. "She obeyed her peers and stopped stripping star seeds from other systems."

"Yes, but she brought Usagi here," Rei said. "And if you think about it, Galaxia brought Chaos. Only Galaxia was overcome by Chaos."

"But Chaos wants to kill us all!' Mamoru said, feeling that little bit of anger course through his system again. "Usagi has never wanted that."

"No she hasn't," Rei said. Then, "When I looked into Usagi, Mamoru, I saw empty space."

"I thought you said you saw the galaxy?" Mamoru asked.

"Oh I did," Rei said. "Many galaxies, and all at such high speeds that it made me seasick, and I don't know what that means. But first, I saw empty space — or something that was very different than what exists now. It was …_terrifying_ to me, and Usagi knew it. The fear of that vision put me in a stupor, Mamoru, and …and somehow, THAT'S who Usagi is! Something …terrifying!"

Mamoru rolled his eyes. "Thanks."

"That's what I meant by saying she was different from us, Mamoru," Rei sighed. "Nobody else had that aura, not even Uranus, or Zeus. —of course I haven't touched Saturn."

"She'd eat you," Mamoru agreed, referring to Saturn's history as Cronus.

"When I was talking to Usagi about my origins, she made such a big deal of my ability to communicate with others, back before there was an Earth," Rei said thoughtfully. "And Helios told us of how the Moon Queen would say the most outlandish things, without considering them outlandish."

"That's pretty much Usagi," Mamoru said wistfully.

"Exactly," Rei said. "Whoever she is, she came here as ..I think as a real _foreigner_, Mamoru. And she liked what she saw, and protected it. Apparently Chaos had been chasing her all this time, but even as the powerful Moon Queen, she couldn't relay that simple bit of information to Gaia." She stretched her feet out in the air and considered things. "But she tried, I think. —Helios thinks it, too. Just like Usagi TRIED to tell Makato and myself several things, but we got caught up with the minutia instead of forging ahead with whatever she was trying to tell us. We sort of _forced_ her to talk about things she didn't seem too sure about, but she never said as much. She just tried to answer our questions." After a long sigh, Rei added, "I don't think she's stupid, Mamoru; I think she just can't convey certain things. Maybe because there's no way to."

"You mean like trying to describe colors to a blind person," Mamoru said.

"I think so," Rei shrugged. "And of course she, by design, didn't even **remember** anything until we took the Journey and the Earth was destroyed. So I imagine it was even harder to communicate when she was only, in a sense, _a few days old_." Mamoru was about to say something, but Rei interrupted one more time: "If Chaos is really our _progenitor_, Mamoru, and we existed long before Gaia caught her, then Usa-chan really _isn't_ one of us. We're more closely related to Chaos than to Usagi."

That shut Mamoru up.

Rei further considered, "She is the proverbial outsider, looking in. Probably _unable_ to share most of herself with us. And yet she was still happy to just be part of our world."

Mamoru considered that part of it. "Helios said that the Moon Queen didn't seem to understand the most basic things we take for granted. Gaia would often go to Elysion and wonder _what_ kind of being didn't understand the difference between good and evil." But he shook his head: "Of course, that's not Usagi. It doesn't make any sense! She is the Senshi of Justice!"

"_Love_ and justice," Rei corrected the forlorn Earth Prince. And then she frowned. "Her best attacks were always healing attacks. Look at how she 'beat' Galaxia." Rei knitted her eyebrows and added, "—Not to mention, if Helios is right about why Tartarus and Elysion were built, so that nobody could …_die_." It made Rei shiver to think of entities like Pharaoh 90 still being alive somewhere, especially if it were Usagi's doing to keep them alive.

"Yes but then again," Mamoru said balefully, "Mistress 9 doesn't seem quite a bad as the one she tried to possess." He shivered, knowing that Cronus was here among them even now. "I'd understand a repentant Galaxia any day over Saturn!"

"Usagi loves Saturn," Rei warned Mamoru. "I have a feeling Saturn must be a mysterious Planetary Senshi even now, much like myself and even Uranus—"

"Through her **crimes** she brought forth Venus, if any of that legend is true," Mamoru hissed.

Rei shrugged. She'd seen such evil auras around the best people she'd ever known, that not much could surprise her now. Of course maybe she was in a state of shock, she figured. But either way: "Usa seemed to believe that all the Senshi were necessary for our survival."

.

After many more days of feeling useless, Mamoru finally wandered down to the hall of annals to find Helios.

"I made a mistake," Mamoru admitted gruffly.

"You mean in angering one of the first beings known to exist in the universe?" Luna sighed.

Mamoru shrugged. "I mean, I made a mistake, Luna."

Helios nodded: "Yes, I believe you have."

"Have you found anything about her …her _name_," Mamoru asked, crestfallen. These were the two who would have known her the best; the two who, maybe with Mars, had the best chance of finding her. Well, not including Saturn, who didn't seem to care either way if Usagi was found, and seemed to enjoy watching their struggles.

Helios said, "There's a footnote in one of these books. It would seem that Chaos was once linked with a figure known elsewhere in Greek history: _Rhea_. It's so different from all the other stories that we are paying attention to it, and so ancient, that it makes us wonder. But we're not sure—"

"And that's IF we're translating it correctly," Luna added. "Given the superstitions of the Olympians, and even the Titans before them, it wasn't kosher to speak of the Ancients, much less the Protogenoi. It's unlikely this footnote is genuine."

"You think Usagi is _Rhea_?" Mamoru winced.

"No," Helios said. "Rhea would have been Chaos' mate, separate from Usagi, if this footnote is correct."

"And nothing about Chaos' sister, then?" Mamoru choked out, pushing his question out of his mind as fast as he'd said it.

"The footnote is merely a suggestion that Chaos killed his mate," Luna said. "And tried to kill his offspring, Chronos."

"What kind of book are you reading?" Mamoru asked, then had to explain that he'd spent his weeks studying the ancient Moon Kingdom script. Helios passed him the book, which didn't seem to have a title at all, and turned out to be a treatise on Moon/Earth relations. It seemed to have been written before the Moon Kingdom, and in an even more ancient script than he was familiar with. From what he could pick up, however, it was more about etiquette between the planets than an actual history. "Why is this a footnote?"

"The section is about marital relations," Helios sighed. "It might have been some widely-known joke." Then he had Mamoru put down the book and follow him over to the largest wall in this back room. With a flourish, Helios pulled away a curtain, uncovering a large mural on the wall: "This is our next best hint."

Mamoru backed up to see that it was an ancient depiction of something resembling many galaxies; an artist's rendition of space.

"Pulp art?" Mamoru asked angrily. "You're down here for weeks and you show me pulp art?"

Luna sighed: "We think Usagi herself gave us a hint when she appeared to us as you'd requested."

Mamoru walked to the enormous painting and stared.

"Look at the very top," Helios suggested.

"Ah," Mamoru said sarcastically. "Black space."

"No, Mamoru," Luna said spitefully. "LOOK at it. There's a dark pink area in the background, just barely detectable—"

"Near the outlines of the galaxy; I see it now," Mamoru said, a little more interested. He stepped back and saw several such 'smudges' in the background of the painting, ruining an otherwise passable attempt at space art.

"Those AREN'T galaxy boundaries, Endymion," Helios said testily. "The rest of that galaxy doesn't have such renderings!"

"They're her _hairstyle_, Chiba," Luna said. She smiled at Helios and said, "It was always said that particular style was an ancient tradition. I'd never imagined _how_ ancient."

Mamoru stared more, even grabbing a ladder and climbing the wall to see the 'outline' more closely. They were right… and soon he even saw what might be odangos of the hairstyle atop each streamer. As he climbed down and stared harder at the painting, he thought he saw that dark pink background extended to the middle of the painting. Down towards, but not including, what was clearly the Milky Way galaxy. There was no way… no. way.

"—Okay, and the other background shades?" Mamoru challenged. He supposed the coal-black inky one extending through most of the mural was fairly obvious — _Chaos!_ But the one nearest Chaos? A reddish-purple tint, maybe.

"Other Protogenoi," Luna said reverently. "But it could simply be artistic license, Mamoru. All but the hairstyle, that is."

Mamoru sighed. "Okay, so what does this tell us?"

Helios looked up: "We don't know. We're just trying to uncover every ounce of information we can, to try to get her back! —she seems to actually be depicted in the wall mural, though, wouldn't you say?"

Mamoru nodded and backed up more to stare at the painting. "Who commissioned it? Or painted it?"

"Not even Haruka was familiar with this piece," Luna said. "The other girls didn't remember anything about this piece, either."

Helios said, "The other girls didn't remember anything about this PLACE." Beat. "Endymion, it's the most interesting thing we've uncovered, but as Saturn said, it might be a child's rendering as far as we know. And there's nothing to suggest anything about its origins."

"Besides its title," Mamoru said, looking at the ancient script across the top of the painting: "COSMOS." He almost laughed … _how_ _very original_.

Luna looked up at the painting again, and then at Helios: "Chaos …and _Cosmos_? Could it be that simple?"

Helios slowly nodded, but not before Luna was running out of the corridors quickly to tell the others; the ones trying to broadcast her name.

Helios moved to follow, but Mamoru stopped him: "Um, …wait a minute. Helios, what would I say to her, if we get her back?"

"Try something _nice_," Helios sneered, then turned sharply and left the Earth prince alone.

.

Mamoru paced back and forth, looking at the painting. "Cosmos," he said quietly, then stared at the barely discernable pink smudge with golden streamers marking the edge of a universe. "_What_ are you, Cosmos?"

"Wicked powerful."

Mamoru turned to see the ever-pleasant murderer of children, Saturn. He frowned, but said, "Hello, Hotaru."

Hotaru walked up to the man and said, "You've got some mega cojones, brah. Talking to her like you did."

He ignored her, but Hotaru decided to sit down anyway. He'd called her _Hotaru_, and absolutely nobody except Usagi ever did that. Not anymore. And she wondered about his soul, the soul of the man who caught the attention of a Protogenoi.

"You weren't there; you couldn't possibly understand," Mamoru stated. "Though I'd love to know where you get your information, Hotaru," Mamoru stated, still staring at the Cosmos painting. Makato had been present when he and Usagi had argued, and she was obviously quite mad at him, but Mamoru doubted she'd trash him out for the fun of it. Especially to Hotaru! —He wondered if he saw Earth, and stepped forward to look closely at the green and blue dot near the bottom of the system. He counted out the planets around it…

Hotaru said nonchalantly, "I didn't have to be there. Usagi told me herself how disgusted you were with her. Myself, I thought she acted like a brat. What did she expect? For you all to welcome her with open arms?" Saturn laughed, shaking her head.

Mamoru frowned, then turned around to Hotaru: "You've spoken to Usagi?"

"Of course; she and I, we're like… _soul sisters_," Hotaru smiled wickedly.

"When?" Mamoru demanded, approaching Saturn angrily.

Saturn held a finger up and said, "Just because she didn't dash you to bits doesn't mean I won't, Cheeb." When Mamoru backed off carefully, Hotaru smiled. "She's on the planet with Chaos; they're making preparations to raise the dead."

.

"Who has ever heard of a Sailor Transport with …_**him**_," Neptune sneered.

"We've done it with Chibiusa," Venus said firmly.

"I can't believe we're going to risk transporting into SOLID ICE —on Sailor Saturn's word!" Mars snapped.

Hotaru squeezed the hands she was holding hard: "_Right here_, guys. Hello!"

"Can we just GO?" Kamen asked, standing amidst the warring Senshi.

And after a little more arguing and several failed attempts that had sent them tumbling back to the Moon, the group finally found themselves in the middle of the dried out district of Juuban.

"Holy. Mother. Of God," Uranus whispered, looking around. And then up: this area had literally been carved out of solid ice, and there was heavy ice over their heads.

Jupiter walked around, quite shocked as well, and asked, "How did this happen?"

"USAKO!" Tuxedo Kamen called, running through the town briskly, trying to look everywhere at once.

"Someone stop him!" Mercury snapped, floating above them all with her golden ankle wings, but wishing she had her visor. This old-school laptop was a real problem. "—I'm trying to locate her, but he's messing up my signals!"

Neptune, however, was more concerned with what had happened to HER mid-transport. She had a disturbing-looking, and very heavy, trident in her hands, and her outfit was barely recognizable with its well-fitted, knee-length sequined skirt of teal …tight enough to shape her legs almost like a mermaid. She spun away from the Senshi and felt the power of gods bolt through her veins, and she lifted the trident and thrust it into the ground. —And out from the hole burst a sea of waters, fortunately flowing in a direction away from the Senshi. Startled, she turned around and noticed they were all staring at her.

"Alright, Sailor Fish Bait, let's take it easy with the new equips," Hotaru quipped, but was smiling at her once-adoptive mother.

"What the hell?" Uranus asked, approaching Neptune and attempting to touch the trident. But bold powers repelled her hand from the Earth-breaking weapon.

The others checked themselves to see if they'd had a change, as well, but apparently it was only Neptune. Uranus finally surmised, "She has Poseidon's trident; it must be needed now to help the planet."

Jupiter nodded, but felt numbed by the task ahead of them.

Mars bent down to the pools of water that were already there: "There are people in here—"

"Don't touch them!" Hotaru said. "Geez, it took them forever to plan this out; get it right, dweebs!"

"Did they plan THIS?" Neptune asked, holding the trident out pointedly.

"I can't believe you didn't _**tell**_ us she's been here," Uranus told Saturn angrily. —Most of them hadn't believed it, but the proof was before them now: they were inside an impossibly hulled-out planet that looked like a solid ball of ice from the outside, and Neptune had gotten a rather strange power-up the moment they arrived. A heads up wouldn't have hurt!

Mercury flew back over and said, "Guys, someone get Chiba; I'm not detecting Usagi at all, but I'm definitely picking up Tuxedo Kamen's voice."

"It's echo, Sailor Mercury," Neptune said. "And you're not going to have much luck sending and receiving typical signals here. It's the atmosphere. —or rather, the atmos-_ball_… it's solid as rock, filled with irregularities. It would be easier to send signals through lead than through _that_."

Venus gathered her Inners and said, "We'll go get Tuxedo Kamen and help him get with the program."

.

"Cosmos!"

"Ah geez," Chaos said, rolling his eyes. "They're _here_."

Cosmos looked over the horizon and saw nothing strange, although she'd heard her name in the mortals' language. "Maybe he feels bad," she wondered.

Chaos moved over the sea full of islands and said: "That was the last check; everyone's out. We're finished here."

Tuxedo Kamen suddenly popped up and ran blindly _through_ Chaos, dashing over the sloshy ocean to get to a nearby island, and calling for Cosmos. And then _Usako_. And then Sailor Moon. Finally, Chaos boomed: "I am Usako! Come to me!"

Kamen heard thunder and stopped for a moment, but kept running when the sound dissipated.

When Sailor Venus got to the small island though, she took a breather with the rest of the Inners and looked off into the distance. These were the islands south of Tokyo; she wasn't even sure which one she was on. But as in Tokyo, it was all so… dead-looking. There were body pools here, too, although not as many as she'd seen on the mainland.

"I see her," Mars breathed quietly, hair on end. Far ahead, against the ice dome of this world, she saw first the barely-visible yellow streamers; had there been an atmosphere, they might pass for the sun's rays… but then she saw a pink energy that you'd have to be blind to miss. If you knew who you were looking for.

"What happens now?" Jupiter swallowed.

"Well if we can get Kamen out of Chaos…" Mars said angrily, then watched as Kamen apparently tried to circumvent an island without seeing what was before his very eyes: the fingers of Chaos, making him stumble in his movements.

Mercury flew up high, as high as the literal ceiling of the planet would allow, and flew to where the golden streamers seemed to meet above odango-shaped energy. "Usagi?"

Cosmos could feel her messenger; she bent herself gently and folded into her human form. When she looked out, she saw that Mercury was miles away, but she waved and flew over to meet her.

Mercury didn't stop at a smile; she leaped onto Usagi and hugged her tightly, almost as one might hug a lover. "Usagi! Don't you ever leave us again! Please!"

Usagi smiled and said, "But Mercury, you don't know what I've done."

"NOBODY wanted you gone, you idiot," Mars said as she ran up to the pair. She stood still before Usagi and stared daggers at her: "Geez, make someone a First, they get all uppity on you."

Usagi nearly cried and ran over to Mars' stiff form, then hugged the priestess just as hard as Mercury had greeted her. "I love you, Rei-chan."

Mars kissed Usagi's cheek and pushed her away gently, smiling wryly. "I know it's Mamoru who chased you away. Let me rephrase that: I KNOW it's Mamoru who chased you away."

Usagi laughed, but shook her head 'no'. She lifted an arm towards her brother: "Mars, Mercury… meet our Great Enemy, and my dear brother, Chaos."

"We've met," Mars said drolly, but then smiled at Moon. "So you're really stuck in the Eternal form?"

Usagi nodded sadly: "It's hard to describe, but yes, I forgot the proper sequencing for my civilian form, probably because I hadn't needed to use it in so long." She shrugged. "I'm just glad I got this much back. I could have been stuck looking like someone quite different!"

Venus and Jupiter finally made it over, with Jupiter grabbing the winged Usagi and tossing her up in the air: "You BONEHEAD!" She caught her and said, "Remember? Hoes over bros?"

Usagi laughed, then hugged a sad-looking Sailor Venus as well. "You are all so beautiful. It was very nice of you to seek me out." She looked around, then saw that Mamoru was still wrestling with Chaos' finger, and winced.

Venus said, "He's been asking everyone who'll listen how best to apologize to you." She laughed and dabbed at her eyes, embarrassed for the tears there.

Mars said, "You know, if you don't want him? I met a quite hideous beast back in Tartarus who'd _love_ a crack at him. Kraken or something."

"Shut up," Usagi nearly cried, though she was laughing. "You've been hanging out with Hotaru too much!" Then she said to them all, "But I didn't go only because of Mamo-chan. I've got to tell you all something. The thing I was going to tell Mamoru first, but he couldn't even deal with…"

"We're listening," Mars said. "But you should know Usa-chan, there's nothing you could say to deter us. We've been all the way through Tartarus, and we heard what you had to say on the Moon… we know with certainty where our hearts lie."

"All of us," Mercury smiled. "And Mamoru was just …very _confused_, Usa." She saw that Mamoru was still trying to get around a black cloud on a nearby island, and sighed. "Maybe he still is."

"I know," Usagi nodded at her messenger. "But I've realized, I am not the girl he fell in love with."

"Yes you are!" Jupiter insisted. "So you got a few memories back; big whoop! You're still our Odango Atama; our Princess!"

"I am to you," Usa smiled. "We were all friends long ago, though; we grew up together!"

"Twice," Mars smirked.

Usagi nodded but said, "He's made it clear he won't be able to accept…" and she closed her eyes, thinking of Brother. "How things are. And how could I explain to the prince of the planet that I've destroyed his world?"

Jupiter asked boisterously, "Did _**you**_ freeze the planet, Usa?" With a wide smile, she added, "Nope? —didn't think so!"

"Yes," Usagi said, looking away from them, to the vast quantities of ice they'd had yet to reach. She tilted her head and said, "I'd really hoped Uranus might have told you by now."

"You froze the planet?" Venus asked, a bit surprised. "On purpose?"

"Of course not," Usagi said. "But I was very upset with Haruka and I believe —I _**know**_, I brought on the instability." She shook her head ruefully.

Mars said, "Odango, we started the journey because Mamoru was ill. The planet was going to freeze regardless of what any of us did! And didn't you say that _you_ took the ice javelin out of him? So unless you say you put the ice javelin through Mamoru to destroy the planet, then you _weren't_ responsible."

"Yes, but I could have at least delayed it," Usagi said. "Instead, I brought it on." She looked up at her friends and added, "Unknowingly — I wasn't even thinking about the planet when it happened."

"You'd found out some very disturbing news," Pluto said, appearing now with the Outers.

Usagi saw Neptune's new transformation and her heart soared: she was just what they needed to get the Earth's waters of life flowing again. She hadn't directly changed Neptune, but she'd hoped hard for the kind of assistance Poseidon could provide, and knew that somehow, that hope had translated into Neptune's power-up. "Michiru! The trident!" Usagi said gleefully.

"It's interesting," Neptune smiled, then turned to show off her entire sparkly teal fuku. "I feel like I was meant to be like this all along, Usa-chan."

Usagi frowned and said, "But none of these changes would be needed if it weren't for me. It WAS my fault; I didn't remember everything before, but _now_ I do, and I set all this in motion a long time ago." She blinked away tears and said, "The Journey and…" and interrupted herself when she saw "—Hotaru!"

"Hey, '_Kitten'_," Saturn whined. "Leave me out of the confession of sins, _capiche_?"

Mercury nodded with satisfaction, feeling she'd known, ever since that scroll, that a very important being had remade herself into a memory-deprived Usagi. "But you're wrong, Usa-chan. You did a fine work, keeping everyone hidden as long as you did. And making preparations for being discovered so the Earth wouldn't be destroyed."

"About that!" Venus interjected. "Are we, um, mad at, um,—?"

"Chaos," Mars said, then looked at Venus: "But it would appear that Chaos has seen the error of his ways."

"Not exactly," Usagi smiled, then bit her lip guiltily. "He still detests the lifeforms here; his own progeny. _But_ he is helping me spare these people." She glanced at Hotaru, who glared angrily at her and then looked away. So Usa smiled at Mars and said, "Brother didn't understand exactly what he was doing, Mars. —And much of it was _my_ doing! I just removed those particular memories. You see, THAT'S what Mamoru couldn't possibly understand." She let her tears trickle out again as she realized SHE didn't fully understand the things she'd done as the Moon Queen.

Uranus said, "As usual, you're doing everything you can to fix things, Kitten. Don't be so hard on yourself!"

Saturn looked around and said, "I think this whole Ice Age thing is pretty cool, actually." She smiled at her protector and asked, "So are you coming back, or going home with Dark Stuff over there?"

"I'm trying to repair things here," Usagi sighed, then pointed back at Chaos. "And Brother and I worked out a time period where I could be here, before joining him again. It's a very long time," Usagi said.

"We're Eternal!" Neptune said, smiling with her trident in hand. "Is it longer than that?"

Usagi nodded. "Of course it must be. And between now and then, Chaos will leave us in peace. Any 'upheavals' will be of our own making."

"What about the Black Moon Clan?" Mercury asked, remembering all too well how devastating those creeps had been to the planet.

Usagi smiled: "The Dark Phantom — Wiseman — is already in motion. A remnant of an old attack, lying dormant now. What happens with him depends upon us." She frowned and said, "I'd like to think we do things differently this time around. But look at how quickly things change! Just a month ago, Mamoru and I were engaged to be married. Now I'm not even _me_ anymore." She shrugged. "Sailor Mercury is hardly the same," she smiled. "And you all, whether you see it yet or not, are undergoing some very dramatic changes yourselves. As Neptune said, you're Eternal now. In more ways than one."

Mercury had been blasting the conversation over the globe, since she was 'the Messenger', and surely wanted the errant Mamoru to hear every bit of it, as well as all those on the Moon colony. And Mamoru had heard, and taken off running across the icy sea where, as he now knew, _Chaos_ had been toying with him. "Usako?" he yelled vibrantly, seeing the group of Senshi far ahead of him. He could only hope she was really there, in a form he could address.

"I'm pretty strong, you guys," Usagi smiled, batting back tears. But as she saw Mamoru running towards them, and added, "But I don't think I can handle him being upset with me again." She bit her trembling lip, despising her form right now. "He despised me."

Chaos suddenly spun down into a humanoid-like form beside her, then placed an arm over her shoulder, just as Mamoru made his appearance. And slowed. Then stopped.

"Usako," Mamoru said, noting that she looked almost exactly the same as she had when she first disappeared. Sort of like Eternal Sailor Moon, but in a yellow, civilian-style sundress. And she was standing with …_him_.

"Hi," she said awkwardly. "This is, um…"

"Chaos," Mamoru glared at the thing, who was suspiciously attired like Prince Diamond, although Chaos had darker features: black hair, nails, …tongue. He stared at the demon who had tormented them all for eons. Then he looked back at his.. at Usagi. "You did this," Mamoru said to Usagi. "Froze the planet."

"I did," she said. "Unintentionally at first, but then the damage was done, so I put everyone in stasis so we might save them."

"She can't let anyone go," Chaos warned the group with a chuckle. "And I mean _anyone_. Even the bane of all that is holy: Rhea."

"_Rhea_," Mamoru repeated, staring at Usagi. "Luna said she was drawn on the painting… the Cosmos painting."

Chaos turned to his sister and asked, "You'd add that blot on history to anything called _art_?"

Jupiter laughed out loud… then shut up awkwardly. "Well?" she complained. "He has a sense of humor, at least."

"Rhea was a blot on my existence. And that of Sister's, as well! —We don't even know her origins!" He glared at the group with hatred and muttered, "Just that _through her_ came all the rest of you."

"Rhea was the mother of all, I suppose you could say," Usagi smiled to her friends. "Along with Chaos."

"I killed her for that, too!" Chaos said stubbornly.

"He did," Usagi smiled. "So I put her in Tartarus."

"She's alive?" Venus asked. "Have we seen her?"

"You've not only seen her," Saturn said with mock horror, "She's here among you now!" She looked at each Senshi with suspicion…

"Ah geez!" Chaos said, staring at the one he'd known as Cronus. He turned away. "It IS her!"

That's when the Senshi realized that 'Hotaru' — Sailor Saturn — had been this evil core's mate.

Mars stared at Usagi and said, "We need to have a talk later." —about this whole 'hiding' thing. Not that it was a deal-breaker; just that Mars was curious how her ditzy BFF seemed to be an expert at maneuvering people around like pieces on a chess board. USAGI. COULDN'T. ADD. Much less play chess!

"Wait a minute!" Uranus said, turning to Saturn and buying a clue… "You _weren't_ my child, then! Not if Kitten here 'hid' you with Gaia!" Self-satisfied, she crossed her arms and said, "You're OLDER than me! You COULDN'T have been my offspring!"

"_Duh_, ya old fart!" Saturn said.

"What are you all talking about?" Mamoru asked, frustrated. He had a woman to …figure out. He moved closer to Usagi and said, "Usako, look, I've been trying to… find you. Because I've made an egregious, unforgiveable …_error_. In judgment. I just… didn't understand—"

"And I doubt you ever can," Usagi said kindly. "But you have plenty of time to decide if that's important; Brother and I will be here for years trying to undo …_this_." She nervously started breathing again as she indicated the unnaturally frozen Earthscape. Usagi then immediately turned to Uranus, hoping to make her understand 'Cronus': "I'm sorry, Haruka. I didn't want Rhea dead, so Gaia took her in. —And yes, she killed and ate her children, but they were eventually spared, as well!"

"Thanks to Zeus," Jupiter gleamed proudly; no wonder she'd never had a great fondness for Saturn.

Usagi insisted to Uranus: "She has a place in this world, Haruka. She…! Well, she _made it all_! —with my brother's help, of course." Usagi shrugged: "Of course I had no idea she'd eat her own young; I felt just terrible about that. But the primary reason I'm here at all is because Gaia helped Rhea—"

"I just KNEW this fiend was behind me losing my sister!" Chaos growled, shaking the planet as he did so.

Usagi cleared her throat, noting everyone's absolute fear of her brother, even in his nicer, kinder mortal-ish form. Back to Uranus, she said, "I had no animosity toward you, and no desire to hurt your family. But I loved Gaia because she recognized in Rhea the spirit of life—"

"Life?" Mars laughed. _This was the Senshi of Death!_

"She said the _spirit_ of life, Pyro," Saturn snarled, turning on Mars. She lifted her scythe and added, "And _this_ spirit of life has no compulsion against erasing errors—!"

"Since WHEN?" Chaos shouted at Hotaru. "Why couldn't you have gone slaughterhouse on OUR firstborn?"

Saturn dropped her scythe harmlessly to the ground, then held up a hand and said, "SEE what I put up with! —AND he killed me!" —_and could do so again easily,_ she figured, so she quickly shut her mouth.

"She got her own," Pluto said assuredly, standing proudly beside Sailors Jupiter and Neptune…

Until Jupiter realized that this exact configuration of Senshi — Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades — was the group she'd faced on their journey through Tartarus. She realized that neither Neptune nor Pluto seemed to be aware of their grouping 'down under' in Tartarus, so she smiled daintily and stepped backwards. That was NOT a trio she wanted to be associated with, although now at least she understood it. They'd been three of the six children that Cronus, or Saturn, had tried to destroy.

While the girls all chatted about Saturn and her origins, Mamoru got right up to Usagi and said, "But I don't _need_ time, Usako. I love you; I love all of you. Always have, always will. We have a future together yet, and I won't let you go." He heard himself and winced. "—_can't_ let you go, I mean." She was just staring at him coolly, and it unnerved him. "No, you see, because we've been through too much together! And you may not believe it but somehow I believe you were born for me and I was born for you—!"

"She wasn't _born_, you skirt-chaser," Chaos interrupted. He grimaced at him, then turned back to the bane of his soul, Rhea, and the other Senshi who were telling of all her faults. He especially wanted to hear Pluto's stories…

Mamoru shook his head. "Okay, however you came to be, Usako, you were destined to fall in love with me, and I can tell you honestly that you've got my heart."

Chaos stopped glaring at Rhea, politely excused himself, then turned BACK around to look at Speared Boy: "She wasn't _destined_ to do anything! That offspring who brought about destiny **didn't even exist** until relatively recently!"

Hotaru flicked Chaos on the head, and he turned back to the _Hate On Rhea_ party, asking the cute Senshi Mars to continue with the story she'd just begun.

Mamoru stood over Usagi and this time whispered, simply, "Be with me, Usako."

Usagi considered him carefully, then asked, "Would you come with me, Mamoru?"

"Absolutely," Mamoru said loudly, exhaling relief, although he was not sure what he was agreeing to. He didn't care.

"_No!_" Chaos said, turning away from Rhea and the interesting conversations and arguments… "Cosmos! Just, NO! —You would make him one of US? REMEMBER the LAST TIME this happened!" and he pointed directly at Rhea several times, winking and shaking his head over and over. He made the sign of a knife across his throat, then shook his head again and pointed at Rhea again. "You don't know what you're starting! —We had a pact!"

"A pact I have every intention of honoring, Brother, and which has nothing to do Mamoru," Usagi smiled. She turned to Mamoru with less fervor, though, and said, "I would have you see everything, but Brother may be right. You might not come back the same—"

"Let's go," Mamoru said.

"But Mamoru I lost my civilian identity—"

"Let's _go_!" he insisted, grabbing her hand resolutely before Big Brother turned him to cinder.

.

She transported them to the top of the planet, and then willed Mamoru to be like herself… but apparently it didn't work that way. So she merely willed him to be able to come with her. She spoke her wish in the first tongue: that he might see what she could see, so he might fully understand. Although the people of the Sol system might believe her to be otherwise, Cosmos simply did _not_ command power over everything; not in the least. She couldn't just wish for something and get it. Had that been the case, she would have willed her very soul to be like that of mortals! But Cosmos operated under very strict rules, which she and Brother had good command of until his offspring came about.

—On the other hand, if something truly needed to be done, and it was for very right reasons, and didn't harm anything, Cosmos could generally get that much. It was usually more than enough, and had always made her very happy.

Mamoru dissipated into the elements that constructed his mortal coil, then those spread out suddenly over a great distance. His very eyes were changed in such a way that he saw everything all at once; he couldn't feel his body, but he felt no pain. He felt rather like part of the universe. He and Cosmos kept changing, though, and Cosmos drew him out, far out, so that they sat on the edge of their home galaxy, the Milky Way. Mamoru considered that tiny smudge of white that Cosmos pointed out to him — a glimpse of Sol, hidden so far away.

Then she drew him further out, far into the blackness of space, where his home _galaxy_ was barely visible anymore. She stopped and turned, then said softly, "This was my first vision. Not really this, exactly; but it might as well have been. At that time, there was planetary matter scattered throughout this emptiness." Sadly, she said, "This was my home."

Mamoru shivered at the sight, both of the emptiness of the universe, and at the sight of the brilliant Cosmos, who herself looked like a universe tinged with pink. Her facial features were visible, somehow: a magnifying of space in areas, outlined in happy pink sparkle. Her eyes were hypnotic, though, filled with promises of galaxies yet to be born. Her hair now resembled comets crashing into her head, the hair itself was pure energy, like controlled lightning.

And then he looked at himself, and startled. His see-through, star-filled body was not unlike Usagi's, and given that they were the only living beings as far as the eye could see, and they hardly looked like living beings anymore, he asked, panicked, "Am I dead?"

"No," Cosmos smiled. She flicked her wrist behind her, causing worlds to explode into existence far below them. "That's called _spiraling_; it's primarily what I did before fmd ibalcher trxems." Her face went blank, and then she saddened.

Mamoru froze. So here it was, as Helios said Gaia had claimed — Serenity saying things that literally made no sense.

"_In the before_," Cosmos tried to clarify. "_With Chaos._ We were very happy. —But then we saw we weren't alone, and I dcrvd nouflr Rhea."

"Saturn," Mamoru said, not wanting to see this being get flustered again.

"Hotaru, yes," Cosmos smiled. "_Rhea _is what she was then_._ And Mamoru, she was something _new_. You see, I couldn't do more than …" She reached for the best analogy she could think of: "…kick stuff around; spiral matter into these galaxies. Together, Brother and I could, um, make things more interesting." She winced, sad at her failure to describe how full her life had seemed back then. " —But Rhea? There was a spark between Brother and Rhea, and they made …order, Mamoru. _Time_."

"Chronos," Mamoru said, knowing something of that legend, although not with Rhea as the mother. Certainly not with Sailor Saturn, the Senshi of Death, as the mother.

"Yes!" Cosmos said with excitement. "And right away, things changed. _**Drastically.**_ And most of what you see is just things, but out of these things came …_you_, and worlds, and everything of importance!"

Mamoru was watching the disturbance Cosmos made as she excitedly explained these things. It was then that he noticed she _did_ have a body of sorts, although not one made of flesh and bones. There was a lot to her — judging from a doctor's eye, that is. He was curious at the various potential organs and muscles he saw throughout her 'form'; he wasn't sure if they were smaller and smaller parts of space itself, or just an illusion that covered whatever it was that made her exist.

"Tell me about Chaos and Hotaru," Mamoru requested, grabbing at her hand before realizing he really didn't know how to do such a thing. He couldn't even feel his 'arm'!

"It was said that I put them together," Cosmos responded. She smiled: "Brother says he doubted her origins, as if she had been a demon from elsewhere. He once accused me of making her." Cosmos shrugged: "But I believe she was here all along, and we just found her." She kicked back and flowed through the empty space, pulling him along as she went. "Brother and Rhea merged together, and then he and I went off to do our normal routines. I was hiding from him when everything changed. By the time I got back, I was meeting his great-grandchildren, and they didn't know me." She frowned.

Mamoru moved towards her, but she held out her hand: "I love you. But there's only been one merging, Mamoru, and look what it's done! —I wasn't meant for such things, anyway."

"But how could you know that?" Mamoru asked, grasping for something he just couldn't hold. Frowning, he said, "You didn't know what Chaos and Rhea would make; and you're obviously very happy with the result."

"I am?" she asked, smiling.

"You gave yourself up to become one of us; I'd suggest yes, Usako, you loved the results."

Cosmos nodded: "But you can't know how much everything changed after Chaos knew Rhea. Yes, I love it —but it destroyed all that was before." She smiled. "I wouldn't want to risk something like that ever again. We would lose our friends, I might lose my brother again…"

"You really like him, then? Chaos?" Mamoru asked.

He noted that when she was sad or contemplative, her pink color darkened, almost blending in with the space around her.

Cosmos responded, "I couldn't imagine a world without him." She pulled him down to a nebula, one that she knew was vacant, and easily dissipated it. She looked back at Mamoru, who seemed relatively nonplussed. She said, "That's what Brother did to us, seeking me out. Only it wasn't that easy for him. He was bound, Mamoru."

"Chaos bound? By what?" Mamoru asked.

"By Chronos and alrnwrles smc thmptr— I mean, new things. Things we didn't understand," Cosmos said, frustrated. "By …Ami, and Rei, and many other star seeds who were now Brother's offspring, and who started …_protesting_! Who didn't want to be …destroyed. They actively fought to stay alive."

"Ami and Rei," Mamoru repeated.

Cosmos nodded: "And many others like them. Before they were reborn into what they are now. The Planetary Senshi. Though how they did it exactly, I have no idea. I only know they were important in making and keeping the changes. And Rhea helped her progeny, but they didn't know her, either. —Brother killed her while I was hiding, so I brought her to Gaia, who made her live again as Cronus."

Mamoru looked at his star-filled feet and asked, "Am I like you now?"

"You are not," Cosmos said, but reached out her hand to graze across his. "Mamoru, you are so much more! —though I'm afraid you won't look the same when we return to Sol. Our bodies seem to forget their makeup when we grbkt frshts…." She frowned, and huffed. "You should be close, though. But do you see why you had to do this?"

"So I could understand you," Mamoru smiled, but added, "I don't think I could ever fully understand you, Usako… even before, when you were just Sailor Moon."

Cosmos shook her head, then said, "No. You couldn't be scared of me like Helios and Luna are, because then you could never love me."

"You're wrong. And I'd like to show you how wrong you are," Mamoru said, grasping for her again, now that he'd learned how. He nearly merged with her, but she didn't allow it, and the loss was astounding to him.

Cosmos realized he wanted to copulate, possibly not understanding that such a thing would destroy his world and possibly himself. And it was simply not her way; the way of the universe. But that he felt close to her, even with what he had learned of her, made her feel very happy. She smiled and took him back to his planet. _Earth._

And this was the hard part. She held herself away, then pulled him into her machinations to become organic again. She now remembered her last successful sequence well— it was something she was sure never to forget again. The wings were already heavy on her back, and her skin was not impervious to the heat of the Sun. She quickly turned around to see Mamoru, and stared. Then smiled.

Mamoru looked at his arms, and short of the future King Endymion's lavender suit, he looked pretty normal. And her face showed that she thought the same as well.

"Now?" Mamoru smiled down at her anxiously, nervously capturing her lips with his as his hands got tangled in her voluminous wings—

And they were transported back into the Earth. Usagi pulled away smiling: "Not now, Mamo-chan. We still have much work to do."


	19. Paradisio

**an unsatisfying tale of separation.**

.

Chapter 19.

Four years passed, with the whole group of living beings, both Senshi and immortal, working hard to recover from the Earth's destruction. The Moon had become much more than a base of operations, though; it had become a real home to them all; much like a small Earth due to their terraforming efforts. However, the Earth was an ongoing project of the highest priority for them all.

The cleared-out spaces under the atmosphere of the planet had finally been made accessible to the heavens, crystal abodes popped up everywhere, along with the grasses and trees, and the Earth's core temperature finally returned to normal. Endymion walked the earth with his fiancée, readying the souls to be reawakened.

"How will they react?" Mamoru wondered. Helios had spent much time instructing him on his duties, made inherent by his mother-in-spirit, Gaia. And yet under his domain the planet had failed the peoples, and they'd been kept sane only through the dreams Helios gave them. Upon the awakening, their world would look very different than the one they'd left behind.

And this time, instead of having a hidden identity, he would be out front-and-center, a known regent they could all look to and throw tomatoes at.

"They'll be happy," Usagi said. "Makato and Helios have worked well together to seed the planet; it is lush and beautiful, and they'll all be very happy. Just like we used to be, before I messed it all up."

"You must not talk like that, Usako," Mamoru insisted. "You make it sound like you did something on purpose, and people wouldn't understand." He grabbed her hand and kissed it: "No; we are _Serenity and Endymion_, and as far as they'll know, the changes undergone here are a direct result of your intervention to spare their lives from a natural disaster."

As close to the truth as they were ever going to get — unless Hotaru decided to 'make things interesting', Mamoru thought snidely. Already Cronus had come close to starting wars amongst various factions on the Moon! And yet Usagi was that woman's best friend. 'Hotaru's _o__nly_ friend', Mamoru corrected himself.

Usagi inhaled deeply of the fresh air they'd worked so hard to produce, but then almost broke into tears. "Do you think Mama will remember me?"

Mamoru laughed and nodded: "She's probably dreaming of wedding plans right now, Usako." He kissed her softly. "It will all be okay; you'll see."

.

And it was; they were married before a reawakened Tokyo, the people of which were absolutely delighted with their new impervious city, and who adored their new king and queen, the Senshi court, and the strange feline advisors from Mau.

And in keeping her oft-remembered promise, Usagi herself returned to Tartarus and happily gathered [a rather surprised] Chiral and his entire family, who'd been frozen in the gateway between the Earth and Tartarus for all these years. She brought them to her court to live amongst the Senshi and to do whatever they could to better the palace, which is all she asked of anyone. In no time, Chiral was entertaining the court with various stories of the passage to Tartarus, and had found his place in the Tokyo Palace.

Usagi had lingered in the repulsive Tartarus and, with Jupiter's help, changed its nature, intending that it be more like a tourist attraction than an underworld. It was, after all, an immense expanse that she'd worked hard to build a time long ago, but whose usefulness was at an end since she no longer needed to hide from her brother, or hide warring factions of deities from each other. Neither she nor Chaos would repelled by it any longer; it's nature became more like that of Elysion. —Maybe an Elysion with a darker quality to it, but, as Hotaru had said, a darker quality kept things interesting. Usagi opened it up from the Moon, and gave it to Setsuna to watch over, along with the Time Space Door.

And from the day of their wedding and ever after, Mamoru was never without his Usako, the Neo-Queen Serenity. Looking out over the expanse of the now-healthy planet, together with his wife of six months, he lamented, "So much wasted time, Usako."

"I don't think so," she said softly, now able to recall all of the Moon Queen's thoughts and memories with ease. "Every moment was very precious."

Mamoru corrected, "I'm talking about when you were younger, and another King Endymion first sent those dreams to me. We were apart for years needlessly."

She dropped her forehead onto his shoulder and said, "That king Endymion's future wasn't so great, Mamoru."

"How do you know?" Mamoru asked, a little shocked.

"Chaos mentioned it in passing," she said. "You were right: the king's intentions weren't bad. He merely thought he was protecting his daughter…"

"He went about it the wrong way," Mamoru insisted gruffly. "He never should have assumed that you were powerful enough to withstand the maneuverings of Prince Diamond, especially not at 14."

"They still have their forever, although it is tainted," Usagi said sadly. She didn't go on to tell Mamoru that the Chibiusa they'd known had become that destroyer anyway, _without_ being brainwashed. Chaos had told her it was because she never suffered any trials, except in feeling inferior to the past Senshi, who she grew to detest. The Chibiusa she'd known had been furious with Usagi for not reconciling with Mamoru, and feared that Usagi was trying to kill her by trying to change the future.

And the reason she and Mamoru had never heard from Chibiusa again was because she'd attacked her own city, and their city might have fallen, except the girl was finally put down by the ever-diligent and non-sentimental Sailor Saturn. '_With glee._' —Chaos had added, as if to make his sister feel bad for keeping Rhea alive all this time. That's why Hotaru was in the future during Mamoru's Grecian Journey.

Usagi might have questioned some of what her brother said — Chaos didn't think straight when it came to his mate — but she would never visit that other timeline to discern the truth, because she had her own timeline, in which she was very content.

Still, she pondered, "I suppose I should have forgiven everyone when you first helped me restore the Silver Crystal. Or on my 15th birthday." Mamoru had delivered her a very nice gift that year, and while she'd accepted it, and had been tempted to take him back then. In retrospect, she knew that would have helped Chibiusa avoid her terrible fate, at the least. "I was just very disturbed that the future seemed so corrupt; so unjust."

"I was an impetulant little brat for trusting King Endymion and lying to you," Mamoru responded. "And I can't say I'm sorry his happiness is tainted; he brought it on himself." Then he smiled at his wife widely, grabbed her chin none to gently, and kissed her. Almost awkwardly their arms collided with one another's as they battled to turn around and come together. They finally grabbed the other's heads and kissed like their lives depended on it. "—dammit, get into the room," the new king said, pushing his pregnant Protogenoi to the door.

They fell to the bed rapturously, both mesmerized by the other's need. His teeth grazed her lip, while her fingernails etched into his back—

And suddenly they were both in space, him laying atop her as their bodies stretched out among the heavens. Her head dropped back in absolute pleasure and he found and manhandled every sensitive part of her. Her toes curled as his kisses grew more intense, and her heart started pounding so hard that she feared she would pass out if he continued.

"Usako," Mamoru said, pulling her close and falling with her until she landed firmly on his lap and clung tightly to his shoulders. Her head fell back again, and her hair finally fell loose and spread throughout space-time, tickling his legs as he watched with awe. He pulled her back onto him, over and over as they toppled through space.

Everytime they did this, worlds were born —at least, he felt sure they were. They crashed onto some planet, amidst soft, billowy grass, and he continued his relentless quest to pleasure her in ways that always seemed to surprise her anew. She screamed on the new world, a scream that scattered birds and every living thing, but her hands were in his hair, forcing him to continue his loving ministrations. Which he happily did.

Later, as they lay there spent, both face down in the grasses, Endymion asked how the baby was doing.

"She's fine," the exhausted woman said. "We did it, Mamoru."

"We did what?" he asked, rolling over on top of her back and kissing her neck.

"We made it; you and I. We're together," she sighed.

"Yes we are," he smiled against her back. "Was there ever any doubt?"

"Many," she said, but was still exhilarated. She flipped over and looked up at him: "Which reminds me, we still need to honor that list."

Mamoru laughed, but nodded: "No exiles to Nemesis… no dropping our guard in the 30th Century."

She rolled her head around on the grass and laughed: "It can't be that simple, you know."

"I know," he agreed. "But I don't want to hurt my 14 year old soulmate ever again, Usako."

"I started to hate her, you know," Serenity said. "—Chibiusa. And it scares me to remember that. It's not unlike Brother's distaste for his offspring, or Hotaru's hatred of her children back when she was Cronus."

"You could never be like them," Mamoru said softly, then lifted the hair off her face. His mouth opened onto hers, and he kissed her deeply.

She smiled at the sentiment. "Hmm," she said, enjoying Mamoru's weight against her belly. Unlike Mother, she was going to have an actual child, not a clone. What the child's nature would be was a complete mystery to them all, even though they'd met her many times in the past. Brother even dropped in on them from time to time in his mortal form, also interested in ascertaining the answer of Chibiusa's nature.

Mamoru smiled at her and said, "I'll never be without you if we honor the list. Because Usako I don't ever want to see you attacked by Wiseman; I'm not sure I could bear it."

Serenity smiled back at him, then let him make love to her again. He hadn't ever asked about her pact with Chaos; all he knew, and wanted to know, was that they had an eternity together, and a world to protect. He'd called themselves the new 'Uranus and Gaia', although for obvious reasons Usagi hadn't liked that parallel at all, and had insisted on being just 'Serenity and Endymion'. And privately, of course, 'Usagi and Mamoru.'

And they _wou__ld_ live happily ever after, just like she'd promised him… but then he would die. The Senshi would die, and probably Chibiusa would die, even if Mamoru didn't follow in Endymion's footsteps and try to cheat her fate. Gaia had helped assure they all lived very long lives by capturing a Protogenoi into her solar system, but not even Gaia would have imagined they would all become virtually immortal. Still, Usagi would outlive them all no matter what, and one day greatly mourn her losses, and maybe even feel unjust anger towards her brother for being the only one to make it to the other side of eternity…

But as Chaos had reminded her, at that particular state of hormonal unhappiness during her pregnancy, that if she made happy memories now, she would always be able to revisit them as if reliving them all over again, and would never tire of it.

.

And then hundreds of years later, with the world at its bustling height, they indeed forgot many things, because so many new things had happened. All was right with the world, so the less important-seeming things got forgotten. The list of what not to do withered away and was forgotten; and the occasional uprising had led to demands of mass purifications. Serenity had been in an argument with her husband, one of very few they had ever had since their wedding day, and he'd wanted to put a particularly nasty bunch to death!

"Endymion, I will ALWAYS fight for every single life," Serenity said firmly.

"But your people want them gone, Serenity! —MY people want them gone," Endymion demanded.

"Maybe I can bend the rules… make them take the purification," Serenity sighed, backing up from Endymion's angry face.

"There are laws on the books against that, Your Highness," the ever-helpful Sailor Neptune said. She blanched when Serenity's eyes met hers, but kept her trident held straight. She was, after all, the duly appointed Goddess of Justice, Her Royal Highness Princess Neptune, and love Serenity though she did, she had to be the Fair Witness of the Records. She glanced at Endymion, who was positively gleeful.

"I say we slay them all," Hotaru offered helpfully. "Just like Endymion wants. —it IS his planet, after all. Or has Serenity taken the Golden Crystal and I simply wasn't made aware?"

"Shut UP!" both Endymion and Serenity turned to Saturn and said.

"You two are so testy!" Saturn said with a smile, then left …for a balcony view of what promised to be a fight for the record books!

But when the notoriously anti-royal dissidents eventually gathered and approached the throne, Serenity merely asked them what they wanted.

"Autonomy from your rule, Your Highness," the leader of the group sneered. "And an end to this unnatural immortality!"

"It is MY WORLD," Endymion said incredulously.

"Then allow us to leave."

"Go!" Endymion said. "Go _**now**_!"

Serenity put a hand on Endymion's arm: "They have no means to get off our world, Endymion; they can't just 'go'!"

One of the dissidents, a small boy, was very impressed with the Neo-Queen's responses. She seemed ultimately just, as well as being very fair to look upon. He went on to draw lovely pictures of her, and of the thrones, and of the Crystal Palace; and he wrote the most positive passages about her. His journal would become known on his own world one day as 'Earth Legends', and people would look to it when determining how to respond to the Earth's negligence of their plight; but they would remember that Serenity, fair and beautiful, was the most just of the lot.

"I don't CARE," Endymion said angrily. He leaned over and whispered, "They threatened your LIFE!"

"They can't HURT me!" Serenity responded.

After much discussion, the decision was made for a world to be found for this group of dissidents; and everybody seemed pleased with the decision. Serenity was so happy that these unfortunates hadn't been slain that very little else had occurred to her besides to celebrate. She'd even given the little boy of the dissidents a picture of herself and the toddler Chibiusa, since he seemed like such a fan. And she placed a kiss on his head, bestowing upon him and his little brother extraordinarily long lives and health, and wishing him the most brilliant future he could hope to imagine. He kissed her fingers when she offered her hand, and made a silent promise to return to her one day.

And in a sense, little Dimande would indeed keep his promise.

.

And even more time later, after the Black Moon Clan had come and gone, Serenity finally remembered Endymion's ancient promise, to NOT use Sailor Moon as a decoy to protect Small Lady. The young scouts from the past had had no idea that their Princess' potential rape had even been a possible outcome; they'd just been worried about getting Small Lady back to normal, and then defeating Wiseman.

But Serenity knew the other outcome all too well; that _her_ future Endymion had offered her up in Chibiusa's place, and it had nearly destroyed her. Maybe without the breakup, or the breakup but without the attempted rape, things would have been different. But put the two vile happenings together, and it had been very hard on her. And not just on a personal level; the thought of living in a society where certain people were _expendable_, especially if the king found them so because of their birth rights, had pushed her over the edge. She had determined to change such an unjust future.

And she had.

"I kept my promise," Endymion said. "Easily."

"It wasn't so easy knowing Small Lady lived through that demon phantom's trickery," the Neo-Queen responded.

"No, but she made it; she's stronger for it," Endymion smiled. "We'd been too easy on her, or she wouldn't have been so easily swayed."

"She wasn't easily swayed," Serenity said, suddenly remembering the power of Wiseman's brainwashing. "But I suppose you're right, that she's stronger for it."

Endymion nodded, but kept quiet his thought that he'd never even had the _compulsion_ to dangle Usagi before Prince Dimande, in place of Small Lady. Maybe because he'd lived through the hurt and pain of it before, but in no way did he consider it just to put the young Usagi in danger when it had been Small Lady herself who had gotten herself into danger. It seemed perfectly clear that his daughter would never learn her limitations if she didn't experience the consequences of her actions.

The King Endymion he'd known had been wrong, plain and simple, to put an innocent, unsuspecting Usagi in that position, then use his 'future knowledge' to justify it.

Serenity, for herself, had been tempted to warn their past selves of an upcoming date with Tartarus. But Endymion had read her thoughts and said no, on the basis that there was no way to prepare the young Usagi for what lay ahead of her, much less the other Senshi, and Mamoru himself.

.

More years passed, and Chaos visited, and he met the finally-teenaged Small Lady Serenity to determine her place in the Pantheon.

"Well?" Endymion asked.

The human Chaos shook his head: "I don't understand; her star seed makes her nearly as strong as the planetary Senshi, but… I'm sorry, Cosmos; she is not one of us."

"What?" Endymion said. "But you've seen her! She's just like her mother!"

Chaos shook his head. "She is not." And to Endymion: "You will long outlive her; the both of you. I'm sorry. —Maybe you could try again?" He didn't suppose Endymion would be interested in another Cosmos clone as a child; it seemed important to mortals to have their DNA floating about in whomever they would call offspring.

"I don't understand, though," Endymion said. "She's our offspring; she MUST be of the Protogenoi!"

"She'll have a happy life," Serenity said. "For an eternity, like everybody else here. But that is all, Endymion."

"She'll go to Elysion or Tartarus eventually," Chaos said. "Like …everybody else."

"Preposterous!" Endymion said.

"She'd be with Helios, at least," Serenity whispered.

Endymion glared at Chaos and said, "And what of me? Where shall I go?"

"You're essentially immortal!" Serenity said.

But Chaos added, "Like Gaia before you, and all those with planetary star seeds, you will become part of the planet you rule. It is a fine ending."

Endymion rolled his eyes. "And _her_?"

"She will not die, Endymion. It is not in her nature."

.

Cosmos walked her brother out, then up to the Moon, where they walked as humans, hand in hand.

"I still can't believe you let Rhea get away with everything," Chaos said. "You know she'll be like us; ever present." He rolled his eyes.

"Hotaru is great," Cosmos smiled. "I still say there was something there, between you two.."

"You're correct, Sister! We'll always have her trickery and deceit!" Chaos smiled. But then, he said, "I'm sorry your daughter will not be of us."

Cosmos shrugged: "Didn't we expect as much, Brother? If she could die so easily in one timeline, she was clearly not immortal."

"Rhea killed her, Cosmos! It's not hard at all for an entity such as Rhea to murder off anyone!" Chaos sounded off, surprised at his sister's lack of insight. Of course he knew that her mortal form, not matter how powerful, greatly limited her knowledge.

But Serenity still smiled: "Rhea or no, my daughter is what she is. _Mortal_. And a happy Senshi of the Moon, seeking out dissidents everywhere, preparing for battles!" —albeit battles she would never live to see, Serenity knew. "She's happy."

"You're still very happy with this arrangement, then? Living with mortals?" Chaos asked. Because for himself, he detested the mortal coil; and he still greatly missed his sister. But not Rhea.

"I am," Cosmos said. "I like seeing everybody happy. And you know, Brother, it makes me happy that they're of you. I'm tending _your_ people, and their happiness has spread throughout universes. Even though the Earth will one day die, their spirit has spread throughout the known universe."

"Like a virus," Chaos steamed.

Cosmos elbowed him and chuckled: "—One day, you'll see I'm right, and you'll be proud of your creation."

Chaos wanted to scratch himself, and finally couldn't take it anymore. He blew up into his natural state, but looked down on his sister and said, "You know, there's a timeline, Sister, where I inadvertently destroyed all that you love, very early in your history. I was very sorry for it — except for watching Rhea die of course— but you were inconsolable. And I never figured out why."

Chaos let go of that mortal coil and finished, "I know why, now."

* * *

><p><em>Sorry for the upload problems!<em> This is the last chapter, but there will be an Epilogue.


End file.
